The Legends' Tournament
by rioludoodle
Summary: Mew is bored, and what's better to cure boredom than watching a Pokemon Battle Tournament? Unfortunately for her there aren't any taking place soon, so what's a little Legendary to do? Why drag her unusual family into helping her set up her own of course!
1. Ch 1 - An Idea

**Chapter One - An idea**

The Tree of Beginning, a lush and beautiful place. It appears to be a giant tree from a distance, but is actually a mysterious, living rock formation. Located north of Pewter City and just outside of the Kanto region, the tree is practically untouched by humanity. A haven of sorts for an immense variety of Pokemon, it extends into the few clouds visible at this time. As if the massive crystal root system weren't impressive enough, the Tree of Beginning is also carefully guarded by the legenday golems, Regirock, Regice, and Registeel. According to legend, the Tree was also home to an incredibly rare Legendary Pokemon, Mew. The powerful, psychic, cat-like Pokemon was floating a few feet off the ground near the top of the Tree.

'I am soooooo bored!' she exclaimed, (yes, Mew is a girl) '_When_ was the last time _anything_ exciting happened!'

'Pikachu.' Mew's playmate, Bonsly stated. He was refering to the erm..._ incident_ caused by Mew pokenapping a trainer's Pikachu, and Team Rocket's talking Meowth as playmates, resulting in human interference, the temporary collapse of the Tree's ecosystem, and near death of Mew herself.

'Oh yeah.' Mew said. Bonsly then waddled over to the impressive pile of toys Mew had collected (read: STOLEN) over the years and jumped onto the (oddly enough) Mew-sized pogo stick.

Mew _was_ very bored, it was much better having Bonsly as a playmate, but she liked a bit of excitement. Nowadays she ventured out a few times a year to watch Pokemon Tournaments or a Grand Festival either live (thanks to Teleport) or on a Pokemon Center TV while she disguised herself as another Pokemon. She enjoyed seeing these competitions, but they only came around every so often. Everything she could do in the Tree was fun, but not exciting like meeting Mewtwo, or the _incident_ she started by pokenapping Pikachu. Of course, those situations had been dangerous as well and Mew wouldn't want to relive them, but they had been _unexpected_, _exciting_, and _new_.

_ Hmmm..._ Mew thought, _Maybe instead of waiting around for something new to happen, I could try setting something up..._

'Hey Bonsly,' Mew spoke to the rock-type, 'I'm going to go visit Big Brother, I might be gone for a while so don't wait up for me, bye!'

'Bye Mewmew! Come back and play soon!' Bonsly responded, a second before Mew teleported away.

* * *

AN: Rio here, I hope you liked the first chapter. I know it's short and kind of a slow chapter, but it'll pick up with some humor in chapter 2, and I'll put in some main characters from the anime in chapter 3. Please review, the more there are the sooner I'll update.

"Speech"

'Pokespeech'

_Thoughts_

_"Telepathy"_

This is how different ways of speech are going to be shown in this story. Review please.

There's a poll on my profile about characters in the future of this fanfic, check it out.


	2. Ch 2 - Making Plans

**Chapter 2 - Making Plans**

Mewtwo was sitting by an unmapped lake in the Sinnoh region just after sunset when he felt the presence of another stong psychic pokemon directly behind him. He quickly stood and turned around, on his guard until he saw that it was only Mew. Mewtwo liked to teleport to this lake after dark and Mew knew it, so it was quite easy to find him. While Mew was a playful and childlike pokemon, Mewtwo's personality was about as different as you could get. He never wanted to play games, but Mew somehow got him to play with her about once a month. And while Mew never seemed to understand the meaning of 'serious' unless it was on a near world-threatening scale, Mewtwo never joked around or took things lightly.

'Hi there, Big Bro.' Mew said with a smile, 'How're you doing?'

_"Mew, you do understand that I am many, many years younger than you are, it is you who is the older. And we are not truly brother and sister, but I don't mind the term."_ Mewtwo telepathically responded to Mew. He mentally sighed to himself, they had this conversation every time they met.

'Nope, you're taller than I am so you're the grumpy older brother. I'm the kid sister who everyone loves!' Mew said back, 'Ho-oh is the strict Grandma, and Lugia's the cool Grandpa who'll let you get away with just about anything."

_Well this is new_, thought Mewtwo,_ usually it's just the Mew Logic that I'm her big brother and she's the little sister. It seems that the 'siblings' train of thought has led to her putting other Legendaries into family roles._

_"So, Mew,"_ Mewtwo asked wryly,_ "Who else is there in our little family?"_

'Oooohh! I'm so glad you asked!' the little pink pokemon exclaimed, 'The Lake Trio are the Aunt and Uncles who tell the best stories, the Creation Trio are the members of the family who are always busy and never around, Groudon and Kyky are the cousins who are always fighting, Rayza is their babysitter, Zapdos, Moltres, Arty, Suicune, RaiRai, and Entei are the in-laws, Mel is the musically talented cousin,VirizionTerrakionandCobalionare-'

_"Allright I get it,"_ Mewtwo quickly interjected,_ "We're all a family, why don't we just move on to why you're here now?"_ He had been vaguely interested by Mew's view of their 'family' but realized that Mew was going into Hyper Voice mode after he couldn't make out her words anymore.

'Oh yeah.' Mew said, her expression turning serious all of a sudden, 'I did have a different reason for coming here than to play this time'

_Uh, oh,_ Mewtwo thought,_ Mew's never serious, this must be bad._ He said to Mew,_ "What is it?"_

'I'm bored.' she stated as if it were the answer to a math question.

Mewtwo immediately face faulted. He then got back up and said to Mew,_ "__That's__ your reason?! I thought there would be a good reason for you acting serious, even if it was only for two seconds."_

'Oh, but there is!' Mew happily exclaimed, the insult flying right over her head, 'I have an idea to cure my boredom, and I wanted you to help me!'

_"Why would I do that?"_ Mewtwo asked,_ "I have other things to do than play with you right now."_

'I didn't want you to play with me.' Mew said.

_"What?!"_ a genuinely shocked Mewtwo exclaimed.

'Don't interrupt me this time,' the playful psychic-type said, 'I have an idea, and I want you to help me. You know about those pokemon battling tournaments humans have? I like to watch those and I had the idea that we could work together with Lati and maybe Latios to set up our own international tournament! It could be called the "Legends Tournament"! We could advertise it with posters and get it on the news networks! Come on, say yes! It'll be fun!'

Mewtwo was shocked into silence. To be honest he did have an interest in pokemon battles and the bonds between pokemon and humans, but to have legendary pokemon set up a pokemon tournament?! It was crazy, it was shocking, it was unbelievable, it was dangerous, it was... brilliant. True, setting up a battle tournament could be a bad idea, yet at the same time it was an interesting idea that captured his attention and imagination. If they used an abandoned printing factory he knew of, posters could be printed, they could easily teleport around regions and put them up in every city overnight. And if hundreds of posters advertising the same thing came up overnight the news networks would have a story on them as well. If they were careful, the whole thing could be set up in a matter of weeks-

'Helloooooo. Hey, Big Bro, you in there?' Mew asked while poking Mewtwo's face with a stick she found on the ground.

_"Hmmm? Oh, yes. I'll help you, I know of an abandoned printing factory in Kanto we could use for posters and I have a possible location for this 'Legends Tournament' of yours."_ the larger cat-like pokemon replied,_ "And quit poking me!"_

'Heehee, sorry. You know, you thought ahead a whole lot more than I did!' Mew said, 'And I knew you'd help me too! I'm going to go get Lati and her brother, leave the ink and paper supplies to me. You can go get the okay for this from the others and set up the location, Bro!'

_"How do you plan on getting these supplies?"_ Mewtwo questioned,_ "And why am I the one who has to bring this up to Ho-oh, Lugia, and everyone else?!"_

'You get the job because I don't want it,' the delighted, pink pokemon said, 'and I'll just get supplies by borrowing a little here and there... '

The implications of what Mew just said were clear and Mewtwo exclaimed, _"Hang on, Mew that's-_ the little psychic pokemon teleported away with a wink- _stealing."_ Mewtwo sighed, now he had to go and tell the other legendaries that Mew was starting a battle tournament. He'd leave out the stealing bit though.

_Great, now I have to face all the others on top of knowing that my little sister is off stealing. How is it that I nearly obliterated life on Earth and she's the one who doesn't have qualms about thievery _ Mewtwo thought,_ Hang on, LITTLE SISTER?! WHEN DID I START THINKING OF HER LIKE THAT?! Ugh, Mew's ideas must be contagious, first the Tournament and now her family views..._

* * *

'A tournament? That's interesting, go ahead with it, I don't see how it matters.' Lugia said.

Mewtwo had just arrived at his cave and explained Mew's idea, this was definitely not the reaction he was expecting.

_"Erm... okay..."_ Mew two flew out of Lugia's cave thinking,_ all right, that wasn't bad, Looks like Mew was right about Lugia letting you get away with a lot, now to tell Ho-oh..._

* * *

AN: That's two chapters down, I'll get started on chapter three tomorrow. some of these chapters are going to be long and some of them short. Please review, it'll make me happy. : )

"speech"

'pokespeech'

thoughts

"telepathy"

Please review and check out the poll on my profile, it'll decide some future characters.


	3. Ch 3 - What's This?

**Chapter 3 - What's this?**

'Mew is doing what?!' Ho-oh shrieked, 'That is highly irresponsible, it's an insane plan, it's - it's - it's Mew-level crazy!'

Mewtwo had just explained what Mew was planning, conveniently leaving out the fact that he was involved as well. He sank down to near ground-level, trying not to feel too intimidated by Ho-oh's loud ranting. Mewtwo perked up, the unfortunate pokémon forced to deliver the news to Ho-oh had an idea to get her off their backs. _Might not make a difference,_ he thought, _but it's worth a try._

_"It's Mew's idea."_ Mewtwo stated, _"And Lugia didn't mind."_

'Lugia! Ever since that Shamouti fiasco, he's been trying to "_relax_" and "_go with the flow"_. Honestly! I know that it was stressful, but he just _had_ to listen to that hippie Phione!' Ho-oh was shrieking even louder if that was possible, 'I am flying over there and giving him a piece of my mind! Letting something like _this_ slide?! _He's_ going to learn how to get his priorities straight!' Ho-oh flew off towards the sunset, determined to lecture Lugia on his behavior.

Mewtwo didn't bother telling her that she was going the wrong way, instead he thought, _That actually went better than I expected. And Lugia is only in that cave once a month, he'll be moving around again by now. Tracking him down ought to keep Ho-oh off our backs for at least a few weeks._ Mewtwo levitated a little higher and prepared to teleport to Mew. _Now to tell her where the factory is. Mewtwo sighed, And I have to disguise myself as a human and get permission to use the newly built battle stadium too..._

* * *

A few days later...

Mew was flying around in Altomare, looking for the entrance to Latias' and Latios' secret garden. _Hey, there it is!_ Mew flew towards it happily thinking of how Latias could- _Oomph! Whoops! Heh, that's the actual wall._ She then flew through the wall illusion a foot to the right and came out in the Eon Duo's secret garden. It was a sunny day in Altomare, around three in the afternoon, and Mew glanced around the lush and healthy garden, but couldn't see Latias anywhere.

'Hey, Lati! Sis, you in here?!' Mew called.

'I'm right behind you, Mew.' Latias responded, an invisible figure behind the cat-like psychic.

A startled Mew flinched and said, 'I forgot you could do that, you surprised me.'

Latias, the Legendary psychic and dragon type shimmered into visibility again floated behind Mew. She had been getting lonely recently, as her brother had been turned into a Soul Dew and Bianca couldn't always play with her. The local wild pokémon were friendly, but she couldn't seem to really bond with any of them.

'What brings you here, Mew?' the red and white pokémon inquired.

The smaller psychic-type replied, 'Me and my Big Brother are setting up a pokémon battle tournament, and I wanted you and Latios to help!'

Latias said quietly, 'Latios is a Soul Dew...' Mew didn't hear her and she quickly said, 'Brother can't help, he'd be a downer anyway, but I'd be glad to!'_ No need for Mew to find out about what happened with Team Rocket, it'd just get her down,_ Latias thought,_ and clearly, Mewtwo still hasn't gotten through to her about the fact that she's millennia older than he is. I'll just have to use Mewtwo's term of 'Mew Logic' in this situation._

'How are you going to get wild pokémon to enter a tournament?' Latias asked.

'No, no, no, wild pokémon aren't going to battle each other in this, humans are going to enter with their pokémon teams!' Mew explained to Latias.

'Really? Now there's something you don't hear every day! Legendary _pokémon_ setting up a _pokémon_ battle tournament for trainers to enter! Hah!' Latias laughed, 'Sure, I'll still help, I want to see how this works out.'

Mew smiled (more than usual) and did a series of flips and turns in the air in a celebratory manner. Now that Latias was onboard with her idea, they could finally get to work publicizing the tournament.

'You can go around putting up posters in human cities with me.' Mew said.

Latias replied, 'All right, let's get started.'

* * *

Two days later...

Three pokémon trainers were standing at the port in Nuvema Town. A 10-year-old boy with black hair, brown eyes, and red hat was facing the other two figures. Iris, tan-skinned, purple haired, and only girl in the group, and Cilan, a pale skinned, green haired gym leader.

"I guess this is it then." Iris said sadly, "For our group at least, it's no more adventures in Unova."

"Just for now Iris," Cilan said with a faint smile, "I'm sure we'll meet each other again, right Ash?"

"You bet, Cilan," the ever-energetic trainer said, "It's not goodbye forever, just goodbye for now. Maybe you two could come visit in Kanto sometime, and we'll battle each other!"

"Do you ever think of _anything_ besides that?" Iris taunted, "You're _such_ a little kid!"

-Seaplane to Viridian City in the Kanto Region now boarding. Departure set in ten minutes.- the announcement came over the speakers.

"Oh, we'd better get on board, eh, Pikachu?" Ash said to his best friend and pokémon partner. Pikachu responded, 'Yes, we should.' but all the group of friends heard was "Pi, Pikachu."

"We'll all meet again someday." Cilan said, "Call us as soon as you land, 'kay Ash? We'll stay here a day or two."

"Sure," he responded, "Bye guys!"

Ash ran up the boarding ramp, Pikachu following close behind him. He turned around and waved at his friends at the door into the seaplane.

"Best Wishes guys!" he shouted.

"Best Wishes, Ash!" his friends replied.

* * *

10 minutes later...

Iris and Cilan stood at the edge of the platform, gazing at the point in the sky where the seaplane carrying their friend had last been visible. They both turned around at the same time and walked back to the Pokemon Center. As they walked through the thinning crowds o the streets Iris ran to a storefront window where she noticed a poster. It was orange, with a white circle near the center radiating out white lines. There were vivid light blue words running across the top third of the poster, 'Enter the Legends Tournament' they read, directly below the large words were pictures of the Unova starters surrounding a pokeball their size, Snivy at the center with Oshawott to her right and Tepig at her left. Below the image was smaller black type, explaining entry rules and location.

Cilan walked up to the poster Iris was staring at and said, "What's this?"

* * *

**AN:** I might come back and edit this later if people want, please review! And go check out the poll on my profile, don't you want your favorite gym leaders in this story?


	4. Ch 4 - A Tournament?

**Chapter 4 - A Tournament?**

Ash stepped down the walkway in Viridian City and looked around the airport. The flight he arrived on had just landed and now he was eager to contact his friends back in Unova for a quick chat before heading home. He spotted an open video phone booth to his left and ran over to it. Ash called the pokemon center in Nuvema Town and asked Nurse Joy if he could speak to Cilan and Iris, after a moment of waiting the two of them popped up onscreen.

"Hi Ash!" Cilan said, "You're in Viridian now?"

"Yup," he responded, "I just arrived. "Hang on, is that Bianca behind you?"

Bianca noticed Iris and Cilan and rushed over. "Wow! It's you guys again!" she exclaimed, "Hey, is that Ash onscreen?"

"Hi Bianca!" Ash said, "You're in Nuvema too?"

Before anyone could respond, Ash and Pikachu heard a familiar voice getting louder and louder as it yelled, "Move it, move it, move it! Outta the way! Get out of the way!"

Barry crashed into Ash and Pikachu, knocking them both to the white-tiled floor of the airport. Iris and Cilan stared in bewilderment at the familiar yet different scene on the screen of the video phone. They were used to Bianca being the one to knock Ash over, not this other blond-haired, energetic person. For a second Iris thought, _Yikes! There's two of them!_

Barry somehow recovered from being flat on the ground to standing and irritated in less than a second and shouted,"I'm going to fine you for that! You better pay up in ten, nine, eight, seven, six five four three two- Hey, it's Ash!"

Pikachu clambered back onto Ash's shoulder as the black-haired trainer stood up.

"Hey Barry," the disheveled trainer said, "what brings you here to Kanto?"

Then before Barry could reply, Bianca shoved Iris and Cilan out of the way as her face filled the video screen. "No way! Is that you Barry?!"

Barry turned to look at the screen, and then walked over to the phone and said, "Hey! If it isn't my favorite cousin!"

"WHAT?!" everyone else shouted.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Viridian forest...

Mew, Mewtwo, and Latias were in a small clearing, far away from anyone who coud bother them.

_"We're going to pose as anonymous humans who want to set up a battle tournament at the newly built Cameran Stadium."_ Mewtwo said,_ "Because I am human-sized, I will put on a mask and cloak to disguise myself as a foreigner. Mew will pose as a Zorua, this way she can transform without arousing too much suspicion."_ he then turned to Latias and told her,_ "You can take human form, but you'll have to come up with your own instead of using your friend's. That means-"_

'MAKEOVER!' Mew squealed. She grabbed Latias' hand and then teleported the two away to the Tree of Beginning since that was closer than Altomare.

Mewtwo sweatdropped and thought,_ I was going to say a new disguise and more talking lessons but that works too, I guess..._

* * *

At Mew's home...

'All right,' Mew said, 'First things first. You'll be posing as a lady who wanted to set up a battle tournament with... we'll call Mewtwo's disguise Matthew. It's what I wrote him down on the posters as, but he doesn't know that yet. Now, let's try basing your human appearance off of your actual appearance.'

'Okay,' Latias replied, 'I'll just change how I look as you describe it I guess.'

'Yay! I was hoping you'd say that!' Mew happily started listing off different attributes of her planned human form for Latias, 'Let's make you around 30 years old, shoulder-length white hair with the ends dyed red, amber-colored eyes, a white long-sleeved shirt and white leggings, red, short-sleeved, knee-length dress on top of that, red sneakers, silver necklace with a triangular blue jewel hanging from it, triangular blue earrings too, and three thin silver bracelets on your left wrist! You can fill in the gaps yourself! And your name is... Lita! I put that on the posters too!'

As Latias struggled to keep up with Mew's description of her disguise, she thought,_ Mew's really excited for this tournament. I guess I am too, I mean we've set up an __international__ pokemon tournament! It's kind of weird that she planned out the names for our disguises though, probably just more Mew Logic that nicknames come first. _She finished transforming and stood up, _better get used to this form now..._

After she got used to using a human form besides Bianca's, (the one from the Pokemon: Heroes movie, not Unova) she walked around Mew's toy pile, thinking about the tournament._ We've already set up posters in every city in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova. The fact that they came up overnight got the tournament on the news. Everything's going great, but somehow I wish we could compete in the first round or two. It'd be exciting._

'Hey, Mew...' Latias said.

'Ah, shush-shush.' the pink, cat-like pokemon said, 'In human language.' Mew was trying to get Latias used to not talking in Pokemon so that she could act as communicator between them and the rest of the world about the tournament

"Mew... do... you... um... sink?... no, think... that we... could... um, enter... the tournament in... disguise?" she struggled to form the sounds with her mouth. Speaking was something she had only just learned to do in human form.

'Ooooooh! That's a great idea!' an even more ecstatic Mew replied, 'You could just try making a ten-year-old version of your 'Lita' form and say that you're related. I could pose as your Zorua! We'd have to get knocked out early though, so no one finds out you don't have any more pokemon, but it'd be great! I'll make the plans!' Mew then teleported away to who knows where and left Latias at the top of the tree.

"Hey! Um, wait up!" Latias shouted as Lita. She sighed and transformed back into herself. _Great,_ she thought,_ now I've got to fly back to Viridian forest. Why did I agree to this again?_

* * *

Back at the airport...

"Okay," Iris said onscreen, "So, you and Barry are cousins. You know, that actually makes sense."

"That's right! We're cousins, but we live in different regions." Bianca replied, "Oh, wait! I've got to catch a plane to Viridian too! Gotta go! Best Wishes you guys!" She ran off of the screen at the speed only she and Barry could pull off and Ash could no longer see where she went.

"Ahhhhh!" Barry screamed, "I just remembered! I've got to get to registration for the Legends Tournament too! Bye Ash! I'll beat you in a battle some other time!"

While watching Barry rush away, Ash and Pikachu were very confused, why were both Barry and Bianca headed here? What was the Legends Tournament? He turned back to the screen decided to ask Iris and Cilan if they knew.

"Hey guys," he said, "What's this Legends Tournament thing?"

"We just found out about it." Cilan replied, "Apparently it's a tournament an anonymous man who went by the name 'Matthew' on the posters and a woman named Lita set up. It's international and takes place in the brand new Cameran Stadium just north of Mount Silver. The requirements are at least four gym badges or two official contest ribbons, but gym leaders can enter without them, and so can frontier brains. If you don't meet the requirements you can take a battle test there to see if you can get in too. It sure sounds interesting to say the least."

"Cameran, Cameran. Where have I heard that before?" Ash wondered, then he remembered, "Hey, is it near Cameran Palace?"

"Yeah, it is." Iris said, "It's actually been built on the edge of Rota, where Cameran Palace is."

"Great!" Ash exclaimed, "I know how to get there then, I'm going to enter, what about you two?"

"You didn't think we'd miss out on this, did you?" Cilan chuckled, "Of course we're entering, we've booked a flight to Viridian three days from now."

"Awesome, I'll see you there!" Ash said right before ending the call. He turned towards his very first pokemon and said, "Hey, Pikachu. Why don't we turn this upcoming tournament into a little reunion?"

"Pika!" Pikachu replied, nodding his head.

"In that case," his trainer said, turning back towards the video phone, "I've got a few more calls to make."

* * *

**AN:** Please review! And check out the poll on my profile too. If you want your favorite Gym Leaders in this you've gotta vote!

"speech"

'pokespeech'

_thoughts_

_"telepathy"_


	5. Ch 5 - Let's Get Going

**Chapter 5 - Let's Get Going**

Brock was humming quietly to himself as he stirred the simmering pot full of chili. He was making lunch for his many younger siblings while their parents were sleeping off some jet lag, having just gotten back from a vacation at the Orange Islands. Brock didn't mind cooking, he actually enjoyed it, but he wished that he was cooking for his friends as well as his family. He missed them and he missed traveling with them, even if it had been his choice to stay home and study to become a pokemon doctor. It had been months since he had last seen any of them in person, and that was only a quick visit from Misty when she came to show him her newly evolved Azumarill.

"Brock!" Forrest, one of his younger brothers said, "There's a call for you! It's from your friend with the Pikachu!"

"All right," Brock replied, "I'm coming!"

He quickly wiped his hands on a towel and walked out of the kitchen to the video phone. Forrest handed him the phone and left to go play with the rest of the sibings.

"Hey, Ash." Brock said into the mouthpiece, "How are you and Pikachu doing?"

"We're fine," Ash replied. "Pikachu." Pikachu said.

"So," Brock said, "What are you calling about?" Brock saw Ash reach for something offscreen and heard paper rustling. Ash held up an orange poster with a picture of the Kanto starters surrounding a pokeball, with blue words running across the top.

"This," Ash replied to Brock's question, "The Legends Tournament. Have you heard of it?"

"I've seen those posters around town, but I never really paid much attention to them." he stated, "What's this tournament about?"

"It's a pokemon battle tournament," Ash said, "And it's taking place at the new Cameran Stadium in Rota. Apparently it isn't just a regular competition either, you have to have four gym badges or two contest ribbons to enter and there are Gym Leaders and Frontier Brains competing too. It isn't run by the Pokemon League either, and if you don't have any badges or ribbons you can take a battle test to enter."

"Let me guess," Brock said with a grin, "You're planning on entering, and you wanted to know if I would come too."

"Yup!" Ash exclaimed, "So do you want to come?"

"Well, it sounds interesting." he replied, "Sure, I'll come too. Anyone else coming along?"

"Iris and Cilan, my traveling partners from Unova, are going to meet up with me here in Pallet tomorrow morning before we go over to Pewter." Ash responded, "And can you do me a favor?"

"Of course," Brock said, "What is it?"

"Call Misty and ask if she can make it to Rota." his friend said, "And see if you can track down May and Max, I already called their dad about the tournament, he's planning on going. When I called Kenny yesterday, he said Paul and Dawn were with him on their way there already."

"Great," Brock happily said, "So we can meet up here tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Ash replied, "See you then."

"Bye." Brock said. He then ended the call and began happily packing up for their trip tomorrow, glad that he would soon be seeing his friends again. He called Professor Birch's lab, knowing that if May and Max weren't home then they were probably there. They were, and as Brock told them about the tournament and how their friends were all going to be there, Max left the screen at the same time May asked when it was.

Before Brock could answer her question, Max interrupted and said, "It doesn't matter, because we're leaving for it right now!"

May yelled, "But we have to ask Mom and Dad first!"

"Brock," Max turned to the screen and asked, "You said Dad was going there, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Well, tell him we're waiting for him at the airport!" the enthusiastic boy said, "Come on, May!"

Brock sweat-dropped as he watched Max drag May out of the lab and in the direction of the airport. _He's really excited about this tournament that's for sure..._ Brock was abruptly dragged out of his train of thought by the sound of Forrest's voice.

"Brock!" Forrest called, "The chili's on FIRE!"

* * *

At Professor Oak's Lab...

"Thanks for letting me use the phone professor!" Ash Ketchum said.

"You're welcome, Ash," Professor Oak absentmindedly responded, "Why don't you head on home now, I'm still trying to complete a new version of the Pokedex."

Ash left the lab, thinking about the Legends Tournament and how many powerful opponents were going to be there._ Gary, Paul, Barry, most of my friends and who knows who else. This competition is going to be tough, I'd better train my team up for this-_"Oomph!" Ash crashed into someone walking by, "Whoops, sorry." he said. The girl he'd bumped into looked about ten years old, she had white-blond hair with red-dyed streaks, and wore a white t-shirt with a red knee-length skirt, she had a silver necklace with a triangular blue jewel.

The girl he'd walked into dusted herself off and said, "It's fine, I guess. My name is Stalia, what's yours?" Stalia asked.

"I'm Ash," he replied, "And this is my buddy Pikachu."

"Pikachu." Pikachu said.

"Well, Ash." Stalia said, "Do you happen to know how to get to Rota from here? I'm competing in the tournament there with Zorua."

The Zorua she was carrying yipped an affirmative.

"Really? You too?" Ash said surprised, "I'm leaving for there with my friends in the morning, do you want to come with us?"

"Sure." Stalia replied, "I'll meet you and your friends here in front of the lab tomorrow at ten. Bye for now!"

As she left she heard Ash say to Pikachu, "She must haveve come from Unova if she has a Zorua, people are really coming from all over to compete in this, but we're going to win it!"

_Oh, Ash,_ she thought,_ if you only you knew it isn't just 'people' competing..._

* * *

The next day...

Ash yawned as he opened the door, "Hi guys," he tiredly said.

"Come on, Ash." Iris said, "It's already ten in the morning, we've got to get to Pewter City!"

"Ten! already!" Ash was suddenly very awake, "We have to get to the lab! Come on!"

He put on his hat and grabbed his backpack, racing out the door and over to the lab.

"Ash!" Cilan wheezed, "Why are we here?" Iris and Cilan had just caught up to him in front of the lab.

"I ran into someone who's headed to the tournament too." Ash said, "She said she'd met us here at ten."

Stalia came out from behind a bush and tapped his shoulder from behind, she said, "I'm right here you know."

"Aahhh!" Ash screamed, "You surprised me Stalia." He quickly recovered from the surprise and then gestured to Cilan and Iris and said, "These are my friends, Iris and Cilan. We're all headed to Rota to compete in the tournament too. We're taking a detour into Pewter City though, I hope you don't mind."

"That's fine with me" Stalia said, "Let's get going!" she started walking in the direction of Pewter City, Ash, Iris, and Cilan close behind her.

"Hey, Ash." Cilan whispered to his friend, "Why did you invite her to come with us?"

"We're all headed to the same place so I thought we could travel there together." Ash responded, "And there's something familiar about her, but I can't seem to figure out what."

Mew, as Zorua, heard their conversation and thought to herself, _This game has gotten more interesting._

* * *

**AN:** For those of you who haven't figured it out, the name 'Stalia' is just a rearrangement of the letters in the word 'Latias'. Please review and check out the poll on my profile!

"speech"

'pokespeech'

_thoughts_

_"telepathy"_


	6. Ch 6 - Reunion

**Chapter 6 - Reunion**

~Ding-dong~ The doorbell rang. Brock, still wearing his Sinnoh outfit but with a pale pink apron over it, rushed from the kitchen where he had been making pancakes and shouted as he ran to the door, "Coming!". He turned the doorknob, pulled open the door, and came face to upside-down face with a purple-haired girl hanging by her feet from the door frame.

"Ah!" he shouted, Brock stepped back in surprise, his arms frozen in a protective position in front of him.

The girl grinned at him and flipped herself off of the frame, landing lightly and gracefully on her feet. "Hi," she said, "My name's Iris, and this is Axew." She gestured to the small, green, somewhat dragon-like pokemon in her hair.

"Ax, axew! (Hi, I'm Axew)" Axew happily exclaimed, leaning out too far from Iris' hair and falling flat on the ground. "Axeeewwww. (Ouch, ugh that hurts.)" The small, Unova pokemon rubbed it's nose.

Ash stepped out from behind Iris with a smile and gave a small wave. He said, "Hi, Brock!"

Pikachu jumped on top of his head, waving and shouting, "Pika, pikachu! (Hi there, it's me!)"

A green-haired person dressed like a waiter then ran up behind the two of them, slightly out of breath, and said, "You two didn't have to run all the way here as soon as we passed the Pokemon Center!" He then noticed Brock and introduced himself, "Hello there, I'm Cilan." Cilan stopped to catch his breath, "You must be Brock, may we come in?"

"Oh, um, yeah." Brock quickly recovered from his shock and surprised position. He then led them to the living room where they sat down on a couch, "Do you guys want breakfast? I still have a lot of pancake batter left from my family's breakfast."

"Sure!" the four of them immediately shouted in unison. They stood up and Brock then showed them into the relatively clean kitchen, where he had just finished vacuuming, where they sat down at the table. The ex-Pewter City Gym Leader then dished out four plates stacked high with pancakes.

_Wait a minute, four?_ Brock thought as he looked to the fifth person in the room, an optimistic-looking girl with shoulder-length white-blond hair in a white shirt and red skirt around ten years old, who was shoveling down food almost as fast as Ash and Pikachu were, occasionally tossing one through the air to a Zorua sitting on the floor next to Pikachu.

The girl noticed him looking at her after a moment and said to Brock, "Oh, sorry, forgot to introduce myself. I'm Stalia, and this is Zorua." She gestured to the small, fox-like pokemon who was happily chewing on a pancake, "We ran into Ash, who invited us to come with all of you since we're all heading to the Legends Tournament." She paused to scarf down two more, "And I'm glad we did, these are amazing!"

Brock smiled, glad that that was cleared up, _The more the merrier, I guess_. "I'm glad you like the pancakes." Brock said, "So, should we clean up and get going soon?"

The group hurriedly finished their breakfast and brought the dishes to the sink, where Cilan was already busy washing the bowls the pokemon had eaten from.

They walked out of the building, waving goodbye to Brock's family, who had come out to see them off and wish them luck in the tournament.

"Best wishes to all of you!" Cilan shouted back in the family's direction, most of whom had already gone back inside

Brock thought that it was a nice way to say goodbye and called back to Forest, who was the only one left, "Yeah, best wishes and keep the Gym running while we're gone! Make sure to catch the tournament on TV!"

Forest continued waving until they were all out of sight, slowly turning around to head back indoors while thinking, _I hope Brock and his friends make it far, but there was something funny about that Stalia girl._

* * *

Meanwhile...

High up in the air just below cloud level, and already above Rota, a Meowth-shaped balloon hovered.

"Why are we entering this Tournament again, Jess?" James asked, "I know it's likely the Twerps will show up, but we're on vacation!"

Jessie away from James and Meowth looking for a possible landing space, gravity-defying magenta hair smacking the both of them as she did so. Looking down and not seeing anywhere with a wide open space to land, she turned back to them and answered James' question.

"I told you, we're entering this to become famous!" Jessie replied, "This tournament is international news! It's the very first international tournament of it's kind! Every kind of battle or performance you can think of is a possibility here! They'll select anything from a double contest performance to a full six-on-six battle for matches in this competition. When I win this thing, I'll finally get the recognition I deserve! Aha ha ha ha!" Jessie laughed.

"What happened to 'we'?" James whispered to Meowth.

* * *

A few days later...

"All right!" Ash excitedly shouted, "We finally made it!"

They were standing on one of the light grey cobblestone paths leading into the brand new, 70,000 maximum capacity Cameron Stadium around ten in the morning. The cream-colored walls of the Colosseum-like structure gleamed in the sunlight, a maintenance crew giving it a fresh coat of paint for the tournament scheduled to start in three days. Although it was days until the competition started, there were already people setting up market stalls and a news crew looking for people to interview.

"Let's get to the Pokemon Center." Cilan and Brock said at the same time.

"Erm..." They looked at each other awkwardly for a few moments, both of them thinking _Well that was weird..._

"Quit staring at each other like that and let's check into the Pokemon Center already!" Iris shouted at them from down the sidewalk behind them.

"Oh, right." They replied at the same time again. They quickly glanced at each other before running to catch up with Iris, Ash, and Stalia.

* * *

They walked inside the Pokemon Center overlooking just two blocks away from the stadium and found the rest of their friends already inside. Max, May, Misty, Dawn, Paul, Gary, Barry, Harley, Bianca and pretty much everyone else they knew turned to look at them as soon as the automatic doors opened.

"There you are!" Dawn happily exclaimed, "We were starting to get worried that you wouldn't show up!"

After introduced themselves to the others, Nurse Joy walked over to them and said, "I suppose you five would like to stay here as well?"

Brock immediately rushed over to her and began his usual tirade of compliments and desperate pleading. Then, Misty slammed her mallet down on his head, Croagunk popped out of it's pokeball and Poison Jabbed Brock in the ribs, and Max yanked him away by the ear. In that order. This all took place in the space of about three seconds, one for each method of punishment.

"I forgot you three were here..." Brock moaned as Max handed him to Croagunk, who began dragging him away to who knows where.

"Uh... Yeah, I guess so." Iris said in response to Nurse Joy, she still stared at Brock and Croagunk though.

"All right..." a surprised Nurse Joy said, she quickly recovered, having heard stories about Brock from her family, "Um, you'll be sharing rooms with your friends. Your group has the two biggest dormitories, boys in room 10 and girls in room 11." She handed them four card keys resembling the ones that all their other friends had. Nurse Joy awkwardly handed Brock's to Croagunk. "Have a nice day!" she said before backing away to the front desk.

Everyone started chatting again, Brock somehow reappearing and joining a conversation with Misty and Gary.

Max noticed Iris and Cilan staring at Brock so he came over to them and said, "Don't worry, that kind of thing happens all the time. Misty handled it while she, Ash, and Brock were traveling in Kanto and Johto, and I got to pull him away in Hoenn and while Ash was going for the Kanto Battle Frontier. From what I can tell, Croagunk got the job while they were in Sinnoh with Dawn."

"Okay, so that's normal then." Iris said, "Did Ash really travel through so many regions? He acts like such a little kid it's hard to believe he didn't just start his journey."

"Yeah, that's just his personality." Max said, "You mean he didn't tell you all the stories from when he was with us in those other regions?"

Iris and Cilan shook their heads, mildly surprised.

"I guess that's not very surprising." Max said, "He's the type that always looks forward, not back. Hey, did you guys end up on any crazy/dangerous adventures involving rare and/or legendary pokemon yet?"

The two Unova natives were now very surprised. Cilan exclaimed, "Yeah, how'd you know?!"

Max grinned, "It always happens with Ash and Pikachu around. They're like magnets for that kind of thing. You should hear some of the stories we could tell you! Ha ha! Ah, memories, crazy, death-defying memories."

Iris and Cilan sweat-dropped at his last sentence. "You know," Cilan said to the young boy, "You talk like you're a lot older than you are."

"Thank you." Max replied.

Misty left the conversation she was having with Brock and Gary and walked up to 'Stalia' who was standing in a corner, she asked, "So, where are you from?"

Everyone else abruptly quieted their conversations, they were curious about her history as well, seeing how none of them had ever heard of her from the others.

"Oh," she said in surprise, _I'll just stick as closely to the truth as I can_, "I'm from Altomare, have you been there?"

"Actually, yeah," Misty replied, "It's a nice place. So, why are you here?"

"I'm here to compete in the tournament, like all of you. I heard about it from my, uh, Aunt Lita, she's one of the people who started it." the nervous girl replied, "I ended up traveling here with Ash, Brock, Cilan, and Iris."

Everyone seemed satisfied with her answer and turned back to whoever they were talking to before. Stalia sighed in relief, she hadn't expected that.

Mew, as Zorua, quietly whispered to her, 'Shouldn't we go register now?'

"Oh, yeah!" Stalia exclaimed, everyone turned to her, "I'd hate to ruin the reunion, but shouldn't we go register?"

All their friends looked to each other in shock, realizing that they had forgotten to register, and didn't even know where to go in order to.

Stalia seemed to realize this, so she ran to the doors and said, "Come on! You need to register at the palace!"

Everyone promptly stampeded out of the Pokemon Center and towards Cameran Palace.


	7. Ch 7 - Registration

**Chapter 7 - Registration**

Unsurprisingly enough, Barry got there first. He had rushed across the bridge a good fifty yards ahead of everyone else, a dust cloud visible behind him as he sprinted into the palace. Unfortunately for the impatient Twinleaf-native, there were already two people talking to a blond-haired woman in a long, purple dress seated behind a table, she appeared to be in charge of registration. The two people, a blue-haired man in a pale green T-shirt and grey cargo pants and a magenta-haired woman who Barry recognized as Jessilina, had a Meowth standing between them.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN'T ENTER?!" Jessilina shrieked.

The nervous-looking blond haired woman replied, "Neither of you have enough pokemon by yourselves, instead of the usual six, you have to have a team of at least seven! You can only have six with you at one time but at least seven have to be registered for you to compete. There are a lot of experienced trainers here so we require everyone to have a backup pokemon ready for this. I'm sorry, but you two will have to enter as a battle team to compete."

Everyone else who had rushed out of the Pokemon Center caught up behind Barry, leaning on walls, knees, and each other as they gasped for breath.

Kenny, who was being supported by Zoey, finally caught his breath and asked, "How do you run so far and so fast without getting tired?"

A more-irritated-than-normal Barry threw a mini-tantrum and replied, "Not now! Can't you see I'm waiting in line! This is going to take forever!" He gestured with both arms to the not-really-very-long line in front of him.

"Would you be quiet?!" Jessilina turned to face him and screamed, "I can't hear the registration lady! James-er, Jamen and I are trying to register!" She then noticed everyone behind Barry and froze. _Twerp Alert!_ she thought.

James-er, Jamen grabbed her shoulder and quickly turned her back around, "Sorry." he quickly said and spun full circle to face the same direction as Jessilina.

"Okay," Lady Ilene responded, "Back to this then. As I was saying, you can't enter by yourselves, but you can enter as a battle team. Of course, you'd have to both take the battle test in the courtyard, but as a battle team you'd participate together in the test and the tournament. A double battle would be a tag battle for you, and in any single pokemon match one of you would battle and one would be on bench until you want to switch out. If you enter as a battle team, then both of you can only have three pokemon with you during your matches. You two can only enter if you agree to these terms."

"Sure, we agree, let's go!" Jamen hurriedly said and rushed away outside to take the battle test in a courtyard, Jessilina and Meowth going with him.

She sighed, "Thank goodness that's over." Lady Ilene said to Barry, "Those two were hard to handle. I assume you want to enter the Legends Tournament as well?"

Before Barry could respond a suddenly re-energized Brock pushed past him and got down on one knee, gently grasping Lady Ilene's right hand. He opened his mouth to begin his usual rant of compliments and desperate pleading, but Croagunk struck with a Poison Jab first. The frog-like pokemon bowed to her, as if apologizing to the royal, and dragged Brock away for the second time that day.

"Wow," Max remarked from behind Barry, "Croagunk's gotten faster than we are."

Misty nodded from behind Max.

"Hey," Max turned to address Lady Ilene, "How come you're the one who's handling registration?"

"Hmmm? Oh," Lady Ilene turned her gaze away from Brock and Croagunk, "I'm in charge of registration becasue I was the one who approved the use of Cameron Stadium for this. And there was nothing else to do so I offered to take the job from Nurse Joy."

Barry, tired of waiting around, stomped his feet and exclaimed, "Can we just get on with this already?!"

"Oh, yes, of course!" Lady Ilene turned to face Barry once more, "Alright, would you like to register?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" Barry replied with an excited smile on his face.

"May I see your pokedex or trainer record?" she asked.

"Sure!" Barry quickly dug his pokedex out of his bag and handed it to Lady Ilene, "Here you go!"

She took it and inserted the pokedex into a slot on the computer on the table. The computer whirred and beeped for a moment, then a chime sound was heard and Lady Ilene took it out of the slot. She handed it back to Barry, "May I see your Gym Badges or Contest Ribbons?" she asked politely.

The blond-haired Twinleaf-native dug through his bag again, this time pulling out a Sinnoh Badge Case and holding it out to Lady Ilene.

This time she just opened it to check if there were badges inside. After looking inside she handed the badge case back to Barry and typed a few things into the computer.

"All set!" she happily said to Barry, "Thank you for participating in this tournament."

"All right!" Barry enthusiasticly exclaimed, jumping into the air and giving a fist pump for good measure, "I've got to get some training in now! Bye guys!" He sprinted out of the palace as fast as he had run in.

Lady Ilene smiled and said, "Who's next?"

Brock popped up out of nowhere and said, "I am!"

"Okay," she replied, a little startled by his sudden reappearance "May I see your pokedex or trainer records?"

"I don't have a pokedex so you'll have to go by trainer record." the ex-gym leader stated, "The name's Brock, I used to be Pewter City Gym Leader."

"Thank you," Lady Ilene responded, "That'll narrow down the search a lot."

She typed the information in to the computer and hit the 'enter' key. The rather out of date computer whirred and beeped again as it searched. There was another chiming sound and Ilene moved the mouse and clicked at the first icon on the screen.

"Here you are." she said to Brock, "All right, since you don't have any Gym Badges or Ribbons, you'll have to take the battle test in the courtyard sometime today. If you pass, you can enter the tournament. Thank you for participating!"

Brock walked over to the wall, leaning his weight against it and patiently waiting for his friends to get done with their registration as well. Misty was next, followed by Kenny, then Ash, then Dawn, then Cilan, and the others were arguing over who was in that spot first, but Stalia was last. He watched them all register and come to sit by him, going through the same process. Some of them being able to enter the tournament right away, others being told they'd have to take the battle test like him.

Stalia soon found herself at the front of the line, facing a slightly bored-looking Lady Ilene.

"Hello," Ilene yawned, "State your name and please hand me your pokedex or trainer record information."

"Hi, I'm Stalia." she replied to the bored Lady Ilene, "My Aunt Lita already gave you the information, I just need to verify it please."

"Oh! Yes, of course!" Ilene was suddenly interested again, "So sorry about that, this tournament your aunt and that Matthew person set up has brought a lot of people into Rota recently, but I had no idea a group this large would come in all at once." She typed in Stalia's name and clicked the "Official Entry" button onscreen. "All done! Thank you for participating!" she said this with a forced smile, unlike her cheery attitude when they first came in.

"Thank you for your help." Stalia replied.

She walked over to the left wall where everyone else was waiting and called out, "All done! Now, we can head to the courtyard and watch the battle tests!"

The entire group left through the same entrance Team Rocket had ran through earlier, heading out to the courtyard so that those in their group who needed to could take this mysterious battle test.

"Thank goodness." Lady Ilene said, "There were so _many_ of them, I had no idea that there could be such a large group coming in at once. At least that's over now. Registration is so much harder than I thought it would be."

Just then, a 12-year-old girl with blue-grey eyes, shoulder-length blond hair in a ponytail, light blue T-shirt, brown headband, red knee-length skirt, and brown boots walked in. She was quickly followed by a brown-haired boy of the same age with a green long-sleeved shirt, brown vest, grey jeans, green eyes and brown boots similar to the girl's, a Garchomp stayed next to the boy.

"Hi," the girl said to Lady Ilene, "I'm Astrid."

The boy cut in, "We're here to enter the Legends Tournament."

Lady Ilene began hitting her head on the table and screaming. After about ten seconds of this she abruptly stopped, stood up, and ran out of the room in search of someone, _anyone_ to take her place.

The boy looked to Astrid, "What? Was it something I said?"

* * *

**AN:** Hope you enjoyed this new chapter, I tried to be more descriptive in this one. It's another filler chapter, but still, please review. And check out the poll on my profile, Gym Leaders and Frontier Brains are going to show up in this story a few chapters from now, this is the only chance you'll get to decide which ones. Just say what you liked and what you didn't in this story so far, please review! Guess where my OCs came from? Go ahead and guess!

**Temporary Hiatus:** Could be a few days or a few weeks, I don't know. Sorry.


	8. Ch 8 - Let the Tournament Begin!

**Chapter 8 - Let the Tournament Begin!**

"I can't believe the tournament's starting already!" May ecstatically exclaimed, "This is going to be so much fun, I hope we'll all make it far!"

It was now the starting day of the Legends Tournament, and the entire group was relaxing (or trying to) in the same courtyard some of them had taken the battle test in. The sun was shining bright and Lady Ilene's Mime Jr. was happily playing tag with Pikachu and Zorua (Read: Mew) on the practice battle field. Everyone was eager and slightly nervous about the upcoming tournament, but each and every one of them was determined to do their best.

"No need to worry, May." Dawn replied to the excited coordinator, "I'm sure that each and every one of us will do great in this tournament. And there's still half an hour until we need to report to the stadium."

The courtyard their rather large group relaxed in was spacious and filled with greenery. There were benches on the left side of the path running through the center and out into the rest of Rota, eventually leading to the stadium itself. The path ran around a small fountain in the center, Ash and Pikachu drying themselves off next to it, with a rapidly apologizing Bianca next to them. The battle field was on the right side of the path, it was well maintained, being near the palace and all. The entire circular courtyard was known as the Willow Grove, named for the many willow trees growing inside it.

"Of course we'll all do great, Dee Dee." Kenny leaned on the left arm of the bench the two female coordinators were sitting on, "Unless any two people in our group get paired with each other in the preliminaries, but even then, we'll give it our all and make it a performance to remember."

Barry, who was eavesdropping from the willow tree overhanging the bench, dropped down in front of the trio of rival coordinators and confidently said, "I'm sure all three of you will do great. Unless you're matched up against a real trainer, like me."

Dawn leaned towards May and said to her, "That's just Barry being Barry. Showing off an ego the size of Mount Coronet." The two shared a laugh at that.

Unfortunately, Kenny didn't seem to find Barry's comment as funny, "What's that supposed to mean?" He challenged .

An overeager and overconfident Barry replied, "It means," he smirked cockily, "That you'll do fine, as long as each of your battles ends up being a contest performance. But as soon as you end up in a real battle, you'll wipe out."

"HEY!" All three of them took offense at that comment.

Brock took notice of the last part of their conversation from the other side of the path near the battle field and strode over authoritatively, his expression stern. Barry and the coordinators stared daggers at each other. Brock kindly but firmly placed his hand on Barry's shoulder, attempting to stop an argument that was likely to become repetitive if allowed to start.

"That's enough, Barry." he said, "Don't you think that's a little harsh, _and_ inaccurate? There are plenty of coordinators who are strong battlers, like Nando and Wallace."

Barry slumped a little at that and seemed to realize what he had just said to the coordinators.

"I guess..." Barry muttered with his arms crossed stubbornly, he then seemed to think over his last comment for a moment longer before relaxing his stance and saying, "I'm sorry guys. I guess that last bit was a little harsh, I'm just super pumped for this tournament, it's the very first one of it's kind, and I plan on winning it!"

"Apology accepted." The three coordinators said with a smile. (Well, May and Dawn did, Kenny just grunted an affirmative) Kenny, who was visibly upset and still glaring at Barry, moved in front of the bench and sat down on Dawn's left, angrily turning his head away from the others.

"We're excited for this too." Dawn said, "To think that so many different kinds of battles are all in the same competition!"

"Yeah!" May agreed, nodding her head, "Contest performances, double battles, six-on-six, tag battles, and so many more!"

Kenny, who was still sulking from Barry's somewhat Paul-like comment, immediately perked up at the sound of the new topic, "I even heard that they have a battle royale option for the quarter-final matches onward! Of course, that's just rumor."

The group of four began chatting and gossiping about what they heard the Legends Tournament was going to be like. Brock sighed, _Thank goodness,_ he thought,_ Mew knows how long that argument could've lasted. I put up with enough from Ash and Misty._ He relaxed and cast a long and appreciative gaze at the garden and the clear blue sky, grateful for the relatively peaceful surroundings and nice weather.

Ten minutes of relative peace later...

"Come on guys." Brock announced to his rather large group of friends (The more the merrier, right?), "It's time to go!"

Everyone quickly recalled their pokemon if they had them out and hurriedly followed Brock down the path leading to the newly-built Cameran Stadium. Everyone, that is, except for Stalia.

"All of you go on ahead!" she called to her new friends, "I just have something to take care of!"

* * *

Latias flew in circles above the packed Cameran Stadium, she was cloaked and looking for Mewtwo in his disguise. He wasn't in the observation platform at the top of the stadium like he was supposed to be, and the tournament was set to start in a few minutes. She decided to land and uncloak. That looks like a good spot. The open roof of the massive building resembled a blooming flower, and Latias landed on one of the darkened glass 'petals' and looked around for Mewtwo once more.

'Where is he?' she asked no one in particular.

Mew, who was disguised as a taillow hovering above the now uncloaked Latias, guiltily replied, 'Well... he didn't exactly... "approve"... of us entering the tournament, rigging the battle type selection, and throwing the first battle we end up in, so... I might have... sort of... maybe... conked him over the head with a lead pipe.'

Latias face-faulted at that one. _How did she even lift a lead pipe anyhow? Darn it, now I've got to announce the start of this thing by myself._ She gave a frustrated and tired sigh.

'Wake him up after we get knocked out of this tournament.' she ordered Mew, 'For now just transform into a fletchling or something and fly into the announcing booth, set up the balloons and spotlights. I'll be there in a minute.'

Mew gave a happy salute and did as she was told, her form glowing and shrinking until she became a small bird-like pokemon native to a foreign region. She took off, diving from the petal-like piece of the retractable roof and gliding her way through the open window of the announcer's booth on the other side of the stadium.

Latias sighed,_ Alright, now to get down to the announcing booth and get this tournament a going._

She quickly cloaked herself once more and invisibly floated down to the rather large announcing booth built into the stadium seats at mid-level. The door was open, so she carefully squeezed herself inside and drifted over to the empty announcer's seat. The actual announcer would be coming in right after she started off the tournament, and he would be the one to describe the battles to the audience, but she would be explaining the rules and welcoming the entries. _Since I'm one of the entries, does that mean I'm welcoming myself? Aargh, quit getting off topic, I've got to start off now._

She changed her form to that of 'Lita', she then moved a few switches, turned a few knobs, set a timer for the center hydraulic lift of the battle field, and pulled the lever that would begin closing the dome. Lita quickly moved to the back of the announcer's booth where there was a door marked 'Maintenance and hydraulic lift' . She opened it, running down the passageway behind it to get underneath the center field.

* * *

Cilan noticed Ash and Pikachu looking around, slightly worried expressions adorning their faces. Everyone who entered the tournament was standing on the main battlefield in the stadium, there had to be at least a hundred and fifty people who made it, but they were looking for one, very recognizable person in particular.

"What's wrong?" he asked the red-capped trainer.

"I don't see Stalia anywhere." Ash replied.

"She said she had to take care of something." Cilan told the worried trainer, "Besides, they're just going to be explaining the rules for a few minutes and then beginning the preliminaries. Her aunt's one of the people who set this up, so I'll bet she already knows them, all she has to do is make it past the preliminaries, there ought to be plenty of time for her to make it."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Ash said, "She'll make it in time for her battles."

Suddenly, a mechanical whirring sound was heard, and everyone in the stadium looked up to see the darkened glass roof closing over the battle field. The five, curved, petal-like retractables came together with a loud clang and a softer clicking sound, signifying that they were locked. In the now dimmed stadium, five spotlights, one underneath the center motor mechanism for each 'petal', came on. Each one was shining brightly on the center of the battle field, which was quickly cleared of trainers.

The pokeball shape at the center of the main battle field split in two, each half retracting into the rest of the battle field. Another, quieter, whirring noise was heard, and suddenly, a flat, circular platform shot out of the hole, it rose about five feet higher than the rest of the field. The brightly polished hydraulic clamps holding it up from the bottom then let go with a snap, rocketing back down the hole in the center, which quickly closed again afterwards. The flat, circular platform was now suspended above the ground by electromagnetic levitation, and it gently bobbed up and down in mid-air. And it was empty.

* * *

Lita opened a hidden door in the side of the stadium, coming out on the edge of the battlefield. Luckily for her, everyone was focused on the *ahem* empty disc floating above the center. She gasped and wheezed, out of breath from running all the way from the announcer's booth to the hydraulics lift (only to see the platform she was supposed to be on rising up without her) to the battlefield side door.

Lita lifted a small, flat, rectangular communicator, it was silver with a red border along the edges. (built and designed by Mewtwo) She quietly spoke into it, "Mew. Mew! I missed the lift! Make the platform go lower and circle around, I'll jump onto it."

* * *

'You got it!' Mew replied from inside the announcer's booth/control room, she had a similar communicator that was pink along the edges (also built and designed by Mewtwo) psychicly held up next to her ear.

She drifted over to a joystick built into the console in front of the announcer's seat, taking hold of it with both paws and smoothly moving it to control the Maglev Platform.

* * *

Said platform immediately began spiraling out from the center area of the battlefield, where most of the trainers were gathered, and to the edges of the stadium, sinking lower and lower as it went, until it was only a few inches above the ground. As it was at it's lowest point, making one last outwards spiral along the wall of the battlefield, Lita jumped on. She wobbled, regained her balance, and gripped the edge of the disc with one hand, holding the other one (with the microphone) out for balance.

The platform spiraled once again, but this time slowly climbing higher and higher as it approached the center of the battlefield, where the five spotlights were focused. It was moving very fast until it reached the center, where it stopped it's movement so quickly that several people thought there must have been a psychic-type involved. (There was, just not the way that they thought.)

The disc-shaped platform began slowly rotating, and Lita stood up from the kneeling position she was in. She smiled._ That was a close one. I guess I should've set the lift timer for longer than thirty seconds._

Lita lifted the microphone to her mouth and spoke, "Hello, and welcome to the Legends Tournament!" her voice echoed throughout the entire stadium, "For those of you who don't know, my name is Lita, and I am your host for this tournament." The fans clapped and cheered loudly,_ I'll just keep going._ "This tournament is unique, and is the very first one of it's kind. I'm sure that all of you have heard rumors about the battles and rules for this tournament, but I will now explain them completely."

The darkened glass 'petals' that formed the top dome of the stadium began slowly opening up, resembling a flower blooming on fast forward. The bright sunlight streamed in, lighting up the stadium as the giant panels opened further. Lita's platform drifted to the side of the battle field, and she turned to face the trainers.

She continued, "Each trainer entering this tournament had to register with at least seven pokemon, this way, we are sure that a trainer can continue if one of them is severely hurt. Each battle round in this tournament, excluding the preliminary, has a wide variety of possible battle formats. The preliminary round format has been pre-chosen, but every match after is random. There will even be a Battle Royale option in the semi-final matches and onward. This means that in each of your matches, you don't know what kind of battle you'll be facing, so all trainers are required to have six pokemon with them in each match. Most trainers here qualified to do this on their own, however, there are a few who were forced to join a battle team or not enter the tournament. A battle team is a team of two trainers who haven't captured enough pokemon to enter on their own. In any single battle, only one of them is allowed on the field at a time, but they may change places if they switch pokemon. In a double, triple, or tag battle, both trainers on the team will be on the field. These rules apply to all trainers, Gym leader or not. Is everyone clear on the rules?"

All of the trainers nodded their heads, determined expressions on their faces.

"Great." Lita gave them a wry, zorua-like smile.

Holes opened up in the ground around the marked perimeter of the battle field. There were thirty-two holes in total, and each was about four feet wide. A very small hot-air balloon drifted up and out of each hole, and hanging down from each apparently empty basket were two, silver-colored Pokeringer rings (These were also specially designed and built by Mewtwo). The brightly colored balloons flew high up into the air, within reach of a good flying-type, and each one visible from the ground, every individual hot-air balloon had it's own name stylized on the balloon. Each hot-air balloon stopped a few hundred feet from the ground, as if held by a mysterious psychic force.

"Wow..." Iris said, amazed.

"Yeah..." Cilan agreed, "It's almost like every one of them is being held in the air by a mysterious psychic force."

* * *

High up in the air, inside a bright red hot-air balloon dubbed the _Jenny Haniver_, Mew sneezed.

* * *

Lita grinned as the platform she stood on drifted and slowly sank lower and lower towards the center of the battle field.

She said into the microphone, "The preliminary battle matches do not exist. The preliminary _Pokeringer_ match, however, does. There are sixty-four rings hanging from the balloons, and each trainer has to send a pokemon up there" she pointed at the sky, "To retrieve a ring. When their pokemon returns with a ring, they should put it on their wrist immediately. These rings are your keys to the rest of the tournament, they will shrink and clamp onto your wrist, and will come loose if you lose a battle in this tournament. The rest of this preliminary goes according to the rules of Pokeringer. Clear?"

The slightly dumbstruck trainers nodded again.

* * *

_Oh this is so worth all the work we had to do._ Mew looked out at the amazed expressions of the trainers from high up in her balloon. _I'd better get out of here soon though, this'll be starting any minute now, and 'Stalia' will need her Zorua. _She giggled.

She used psychic on the control panel in the announcer's booth to set the platform on autopilot and used her taillow disguise again, flying out of the hot-air balloon and down to the battle field. Mew, as a taillow, flew into the shadows of the curved stadium wall where she transformed back into Zorua.

* * *

"Good." Lita said, the center of the field opened up once more, the platform sinking down into it. She quickly jumped off of the disc at the last second, immediately running to the side of the field afterwards. She backed up into the dark shadows of the circular arena where she couldn't be seen. "Now let the tournament... BEGIN!"

* * *

**AN:** Shortest. hiatus. Ever. Oh, well. I'm just glad I finally got to start of the tournament. And for those of you who don't know, Fletchling is a pokemon from the generation VI games, X and Y. (They are definitely out of ideas for names. But that doesn't matter, the youtube trailers for these games are awesome! The graphics are _amazing_, I'm so going to get a copy when they come out, they're coming out in October according to Bulbapedia/Bulbanews.) Check the poll on my profile, you can vote on whether or not there should be a Battle Royale in the tournament. Please Review!

Mewtwo: Make sure to give me credit on my inventions.

Rio: Why?

Mewtwo: Just do it.

Rio: Okay, okay. Bossy.

Mewtwo: What was that?

Rio: Oh, erm... nothing!

Mewtwo: That's what I thought. (Turns to audience) Review or else!


	9. Ch 9 - Flying High

**Chapter 9 - Flying**

"Right after I specify the rules." Marian happily said.

Several of the very excited trainers on the field groaned, including Ash and Barry. Iris smacked the both of them on the back of their heads.

"You have to know the rules to get past the preliminary!" Iris hissed, "You two act like little kids!"

* * *

In the announcing booth, Marian turned off the mike and took a drink of water from a pink water bottle. She had just arrived at the booth, running a few minutes late because the contest she had announced for in a nearby town went on longer than expected. Although Lilian, the Kanto region's contest announcer, really should have been the Legends Tournament announcer, she had a long string of contests to prepare for on the other side of the region, so Marian had been called in. Marian had sat down in the announcer's seat, out of breath, in the middle of the balloon launch, tired from running to the booth, and she now needed to explain all the rules for the preliminary. She screwed the cap back onto her water bottle and set it down next to her chair. Marian pressed a glowing green button to reactivate the microphone.

* * *

Out on the field, Barry threw an impatient tantrum and irritatedly exclaimed, "Didn't that Lita lady already explain all the rules?!"

Several people looked in their direction, staring at Barry and the others, thoroughly embarrassing his friends, although Barry himself didn't seem to notice. Brock scooted away from the others, trying to disassociate himself from them without success. _Maybe this is what everyone feels like when I try to get a date._ he thought.

"My guess is that she made a general overview of the tournament rules," Cilan said, trying to calm him down and avoid any more awkward stares and glances in their direction, "But that it'll be the announcer's job to explain special changes made to fit the individual rounds."

Barry pouted and murmured, "That sorta makes sense..."

There was a short burst of static when the speakers came back on.

"Each trainer or battle team is allowed up to two pokemon in this round. You are allowed to use any type of pokemon, but if both are knocked out before you get the ring you are disqualified from the tournament. According to Pokeringer rules, you are allowed to attack other pokemon, before and after they retrieve a ring. Trainers and battle teams are allowed to work together, and both trainers in a battle team must have a ring in order for the team to pass." Marian explained, "You may now... Begin!"

"Honchkrow, standby for battle!" Paul, not all that unexpectedly, was the first to send out a pokemon.

However, less than a second after he did, the large majority of trainers also released pokemon capable of flying. Wiwona's skarmory was the second to take off, after Paul's Honchkrow of course. The two soon began battling, less than thirty feet off of the ground. Everyone's pokemon were locked in battle with another team's, most of which were fighting only fifteen feet off the ground. Those that manged to dodge and evade through the massive Battle Cloud were caught by the more powerful pokemon at the top, whose trainers were more focused on eliminating the competition than actually going for a ring.

"Would you look at that!" Marian excitedly exclaimed, "A giant cloud of battling flying pokemon has formed! It's going to be tough to make it through that thing! Just look at all the pokemon in that Battle Cloud!"

* * *

The cloud of pokemon were locked in battle, and stayed that way. It was slowly moving higher and higher though, and would reach the level of the first balloons before too long. When that happened, most of the truces and groups of trainers working together would probably break apart, and it would truly become a free-for-all.

It hadn't happened yet, of course, the preliminary was just beginning. Down on the ground, a tall figure in a red cloak knew this. The person's face was hidden in the hood of the cloak, and a hand reached inside it and slowly pulled out a pokeball. The only facial feature visible from beneath the hood was a faintly smiling mouth. The person let out a pokemon from the pokeball, but the pokemon that came out moved to quickly for anyone to be able to identify what it was.

It's trainer gave a quick and quiet command, "Get a ring."

The mysterious pokemon took off, moving so quickly that it was only a blur as it cut through the Battle Cloud, narrowly missing May's Beautifly. It reached a red balloon that was the highest out of all the thirty-two, and quickly plucked one of the rings off of the rope they hung on. It quickly flew back down to it's trainer, narrowly missing Dawn's Togekiss and Piplup this time. The pokemon's trainer took the offered ring from the incredibly fast pokemon and returned it to it's pokeball before anyone could get a clear look at it. The person in the red cloak gave a small grin and put the ring on their left wrist, the silvery-colored ring glowed an electric blue and shrunk down until it fit tightly on their wrist. The trainer smiled widely and walked out of the arena unnoticed by everyone. Everyone except Stalia.

She was the only one who had really noticed the mysterious pokemon as it ducked and dodged it's way through the cloud of pokemon. However, the sight of it brought painful memories to the surface and she turned away. Zorua came back, a ring in her mouth, which Stalia gently took from it. She didn't put it on though, just slipped it into her pocket and ran back to her group of friends, tears in her eyes.

* * *

Iris and Cilan were a battle team, the two of them having just enough pokemon to enter if they worked together. Both of them nodded, having just decided on a plan to somehow make it through the "Battle Cloud", as Marian had dubbed it.

"Go, Dragonite!" Iris shouted, throwing the powerful pokemon's pokeball, releasing it.

Dragonite came out and roared, scaring away several flying types that had prepared to attack it.

"It's already a melting pot of flying pokemon here, Pansage, so let's add some of your unique herbal flavor!" Cilan let out his Pansage, "Jump onto Dragonite's back." he ordered, "Use Bullet Seed on any pokemon that tries to get too close!"

Pansage nodded and jumped onto Dragonite's back, a determined expression on it's face until it saw the massive cloud of pokemon. It lost quite a bit of confidence seeing that, anyone would, really.

"And Dragonite," Iris added, "You fly up to a balloon and hit any pokemon that gets through Pansage's Bullet Seed. Grab two rings and come back as quickly as you can!"

Dragonite nodded, flapping it's wings and preparing to rocket itself through the cloud of battling pokemon.

"Wait!" Iris panicked, swinging her arms wildly as she tried to calm herself down, "Not now! Wait until there's an opening! If you go through now, you'll be caught in that giant free-for-all!"

Axew sweat-dropped from the ground next to Cilan. Dragonite sighed, rubbing it's head frustratedly._ Why do I listen to her again?_

Next to Cilan, Ash exclaimed, "Buizel! I choose you!"

The battle-loving water-type came out of it's pokeball, punching at the air, ready for a challenge.

Cilan saw it and said to Ash, "Oh, so this is your Buizel!" the pokemon connoisseur watched as Buizel bounced around, looking for it's opponent until Pikachu hopped off of Ash's shoulder and calmed down the excitable water-type. "Well, it certainly has a spicy personality! Are you using Charizard to fly up there?" he looked to the sky, specifically, the area high above that contained the miniature hot-air balloons

Ash responded, "Charizard? Nah, that would be too typical. I'm using only Buizel! Everyone else has a flying-type or two in that cloud somewhere, so we're going to take 'em by surprise!"

"Oh, okay." Cilan calmly replied, then a very obvious fact occurred to him and he exclaimed, "Wait! Ash! Buizel can't get up there by itself, and it's too big to hitchhike off of most of the pokemon without getting knocked off!"

Iris heard their conversation and turned towards them, "Dragonite could take Buizel too, we could use the extra defense."

Ash observed the cloud for a moment and then said to Iris and Cilan, "No, but thanks for the offer. We can still try to help Dragonite, but it's a big target. We'd probably get hit a lot more if Dragonite took too much extra weight while still having to dodge. Besides, we have our own idea of how to get up there."

"Suit yourself." Iris said while shrugging her shoulders. She turned back to scrutinizing the very low Battle Cloud for possible openings.

* * *

Paul's Honchkrow was having a hard time. Unbelievable. _Paul's_ Honchkrow was having a hard time. It was stuck at the bottom of the Battle Cloud, surrounded on all sides by Falkner and Wiwona's flying-type pokemon.

Their trainers were desperately searching the cloud for them, and wouldn't have approved of their ganging up on Honchkrow, but the last order their pokemon had received was, "Attack!" That order had been given to Falkner's Pigeot and Noctowl to attack Wiwona's Skarmory and Altaria, and vice versa, but all four flying-types had interpreted it to attack Paul's nearby Honchkrow. The two Gym Leaders were panicking, having lost sight of their pokemon after that.

No matter what Honchkrow did, it couldn't get out of the circle, and was repeatedly hit by Peck attacks. The four powerful flying-types were severely injured from fighting each other before going after Honchkrow, and it wouldn't take more than two or three good hits from a Night Slash or Wing Attack to finish them. But that was why they had ganged up on Honchkrow. Paul clenched his fists. He knew that Honchkrow was strong, but it couldn't get out of this one without help. The thought of releasing it back into the wild never even crossed his mind, he had actually begun to really care about his pokemon after the Sinnoh League.

The Veilstone City trainer still had not yet beaten Brandon, but he had heard that the Pyramid King would be competing in the Legends Tournament, and so he entered. That, and the fact that there would be many powerful trainers there. It was an even bigger bonus to find out that his rival would be there too._ Rematch. You might have beaten me in the Sinnoh League quarter-finals, but I've improved since then. And if you haven't too, I'm fining you. Wait, that sounds like Barry._ He shook his head, trying to rid himself of distracting thoughts.

"Torterra, standby for battle!"

He threw the pokeball, which opened up to reveal the final form of his starter pokemon.

"Leaf Storm at Honchkrow!" he ordered the powerful dual-type.

The tree on Torterra's back began glowing, and a whirlwind of leaves appeared, swirling and spiraling towards Honchkrow. The Leaf Storm widened out at the last second, hitting the flying-types surrounding Honchkrow and sending them flying out of the cloud, Team Rocket style, unable to battle. The wind from the twister of leaves lifted Honchkrow higher into the cloud, until it ran into a Fearow on the higher levels.

Coincidentally, the four flying-types landed on top of the hysterical Falkner and panicking Wiwona.

* * *

Along the high rim of Cameran Stadium, the observation platform was supported by strong, polymer beams. It wasn't so much an observation platform as it was an observation ring. The observation ring was like a giant glass ring that was cut angular, like a rectangle, running around the inside rim of the stadium, just a few meters below where the spotlights were. Inside this observation ring were the Champions and Elite Four from the five regions where the Legends Tournament was advertised.

They all stood on the forest green carpet, crowded around the windows watching the intense free-for-all spectacle below them.

"Hey," Wallace said, "I think I see May and Dawn!"

Cynthia responded from next to him, "That's Dawn alright, so then I'll take it that the brown-haired girl next to her is May?"

"Yeah, that's her." Wallace replied while still looking out at the battle field, "You know Dawn?"

Alder suddenly pushed the two of them aside, exclaiming, "I can see Isis and Celery! And that hyper Brianna girl too!"

Lance, who was squished between the Wall and Cynthia, tried to gently shove her back towards Alder and Wallace. He ended up knocking the three of them down like a set of dominoes. They got back up and dusted themselves off, staring at him irritatedly.

"Heh heh, sorry." Lance nervously replied, "Why are we all in this small part of the ring when we've got half of it to ourselves anyway?"

"Because we can see some trainers we know from here." Bertha replied from behind them.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" All four champions tripped and fell over each other, surprised that Bertha had snuck up behind them.

"When did you get there?" Alder asked from the bottom of the heap.

"Just now." Bertha replied matter-of-factly. I love scaring these four.

They all stood up and spread out a little more to avoid tripping over each other again.

"Do you see anyone you know down there?" Bertha asked Lance, "Besides the Gym Leaders and Brandon of course."

The red-headed dragon master replied, "Well I haven't really looked yet." He turned back to the window, searching through the crowd of trainers on the field.

"Hmmm..." Lance looked through the crowd, "No one who hasn't been named yet- oh wait, there's Ash and Pikachu!"

"You know them?" the other champions and Flint of the Elite Four asked. They turned to the others who asked the same question, "You know them?" They turned to each other again, "You know them?"

Bertha irritatedly slammed her cane on the floor, hard and loud. It silenced the room. "Okay, we get it, they got around a lot, you all know that kid with the Pikachu. Just watch the free-for-all and stop being so ridiculous." _These people are supposed to be the best trainers from five different regions?_

Everyone returned to pointing out pairs of battling pokemon and trainers they recognized. This continued for less than ten seconds when Flint yelled out, "Whoa! Look at that Buizel!"

Sure enough, everyone turned their attention to Ash's Buizel, who was making it's way up through the Battle Cloud.

* * *

About a minute ago...

Buizel stood on the battle field, ready to jump in at a moment's notice. The Battle cloud was now roughly twenty-five feet above, and the Sea Weael Pokemon was directly below it.

"Hey, Iris," Ash said to his friend, "How about we clear a path for you?"

"Huh?" a confused Iris asked, "How would you do that? Buizel can't fly!"

"Buizel, use Aqua Jet straight up in the air!" Ash commanded the water-type.

Buizel surrounded itself with a veil of water, spinning it's two tails to power the attack forward. Aqua Jet launched Buizel about twenty feet in the air before the attack gave out, just below the thickest part of the Battle Cloud.

"Water Gun at that Mandibuzz!"

Buizel's head turned to look at a trainer's Mandibuzz a few feet below and to the right, who was relentlessly attacking May's Beautifly and Barry's Heracross with a supereffective Peck attack.

"Bui bui!" it exclaimed, (it sounded like that to humans at least) firing a Water Gun at the Bone Vulture Pokemon.

The powerful stream of water knocked the Mandibuzz away from Beautifly, and the recoil of the attack launched Buizel diagonally through the air. Buizel ended up about ten feet higher than it had been.

"Water Gun at that Swellow!"

Buizel fired once more, this time the attack hit a Swellow directly below it that was ganging up with Jessie's- er-Jessiebelle's Yanmega on Brock's Croagunk, who was catching a ride with Dawn's Togekiss. The Water Gun itself didn't do much damage, but it did push the Swellow into the path of Croagunk's Poison Sting. The dozens of poison needles hit Swellow, sending it unconcious back to the ground, where it's trainer's Medicham caught it with psychic. The recoil of that attack launched Buizel through the air once more, this time straight up. It flew about seven feet this time, the weakened Swellow not having resisted the attack as much as Mandibuzz.

"Land on that Skarmory!"

Buizel landed on the back of a surprised Skarmory who was attempting to weave it's way through the Battle Cloud without getting caught in any crossfire or battles. (A very futile attempt)

"Aqua Jet off of it!"

Buizel did as told, once again surrounding itself with a thin veil of water before launching itself straight up through the air, this time with Dragonite and Pansage close behind it, keeping the path clear for Dawn's Togekiss, Brock's Croagunk, May's Beautifly, and Barry's Heracross to come through. They were now a team.

* * *

"Isn't that Ash's Buizel?" Wallace asked no one in particular, "What's he thinking?! Buizel couldn't get all the way up there!"

"Oh yes it could." Cynthia replied.

"How?" A skeptical Wallace asked the Sinnoh Region's champion.

Cynthia smiled and replied, "Apparently, Ash is teaching Buizel how to fly."

* * *

**AN:** Please review and tell me how you think I did on writing battle scenes. This is my first time writing pokemon battles, so I tried to ease into it with just a few attack scenes. Anyone think they can guess who the mystery person is? Check out the poll on my profile if you want a Battle Royale somewhere in this story.


	10. Ch 10 - Match-ups

**Chapter 10 - Match-ups**

Buizel, after clearing a small path for Dragonite, Pansage, Togekiss, Croagunk, Beautifly, and Heracross, had continued it's bounding and rebounding flight pattern through the very accurately named Battle Cloud. At some point, Misty's Gyarados had become injured, and it's last action before fainting was launching her Azumarill upwards into the air to be caught by Buizel, who placed the smaller water-type on Dragonite's back, next to Pansage. The cloud had sped up it's rising action after their team had disrupted it, and after only three minutes, the cloud hit the level of the lowest Pokeringer balloons.

As the mystery trainer had predicted, many of the truces formed by trainers had immediately broken apart as soon as they realized that they had passed the first balloon. It quickly turned into a game of every pokemon for themselves, and the trainers soon turned on each other. A very good example of this was Barry.

"Heracross, use Horn Attack on Beautifly!" he ordered the Bug and Fighting-type

May's Beautifly, not expecting an attack to come from Heracross behind it, was shocked and unable to move out of the way of Heracross' glowing, white horn. The attack struck it dead in the center, knocking the Butterfly Pokemon upwards, passing in front of Dawn's Togekiss. Luckily for May and Beautifly, Togekiss swooped underneath the now falling pokemon and caught it. Brock's Croagunk, who had teamed up with Togekiss after Piplup had been knocked out, grabbed Beautifly to keep it from falling off of Togekiss' back.

"Barry! What do you think you're doing?!" Brock angrily asked the young trainer.

The blond-haired Twinleaf native turned around to face Brock and exclaimed, "In case you haven't noticed, it's gotten to be a free-for-all up there! No more truces, and it's every man for himself!"

Misty somehow appeared behind Barry and swung her mallet down, leaving a large bump on the back of his head and a dazed Barry on the ground.

"Or woman..." Barry muttered, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head.

Misty pulled Barry to his feet by the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards her. "That's not what I'm mad about, you idiot! Just because everyone else has broken their truces doesn't mean we have to!"

* * *

Meanwhile, up in the air...

Somewhere in the middle of Misty lecturing (READ: yelling at) Barry, Buizel landed on top of a Salamence. The Salamence flew upwards, towards the higher balloons where there were less pokemon, carrying Buizel with it.

It was harder to hear the land-bound trainers' voices from that far up high, but most of the pokemon could still make out their orders if they listened carefully.

"Aqua Jet! Get to the highest balloon!"

Buizel surrounded itself in a veil of water once again, spinning it's two tails to propel itself as quickly as it could to get up to the red balloon. Pushing off of the Salamence trying to shake it off was difficult, and Buizel almost lost balance and fell, but the water-type quickly righted itself and flew upwards, towards the _Jenny Haniver_.

* * *

Dragonite forced it's way past a group of a battling Staraptor, Swellow, and Unfezant, (there used to be a Pigeot, but it had served as Buizel's rebounder as the water-type passed through the air battle) nearly getting hit by several Aerial Ace attacks in the process. It then continued following Buizel's mostly cleared path through the air, hitting several flying types with a sizzling Thunderpunch to the wing in the process.

The Staraptor was diving down at Dragonite using Brave Bird for interfering with it's battle, but the dragon-type didn't notice. Pansage, however, did, and it gathered solar energy as the bird pokemon approached. Just before they would've been hit by the devastating attack, it launched the Solarbeam, knocking out the attacking Staraptor and saving them from being hit.

* * *

Buizel grabbed the silver ring in it's right paw as it hung onto the rope hanging from the basket with it's left. The added weight caused the balloon to wobble while Buizel swung gently back and forth. Mew floated out of the basket she'd teleported to after giving 'Stalia' the ring, and drifted down to Buizel's level to investigate what was causing her balloon to sway. The psychic-type caught sight of Buizel and flew around it in circles, Buizel trying to turn around to look at her.

'Hi!' Mew exclaimed to the hanging Buizel, 'What're you doing up here?'

Buize stared with an incredulous expression on it's face, 'I'm hanging hundreds of feet from the ground by a rope, there are pokemon coming up here to attack anyone with these rings, you're a_ Mew_, and you ask what I'm doing here?!'

'Yup.' Mew responded, floating in front of Buizel's face, 'Hey, do you know Pikachu?'

'Uh... Yeah?' Buizel hesitantly said.

'Tell him I said hi, and I'm sorry about taking them to the Tree last time.' Mew then teleported away, back to ground-level where she met up with Stalia as a Zorua.

'Huh?' Buizel was just confused, _What's Mew doing here at a tournament? And does she know Pikachu somehow? Eh, stupid thought, with everything that little mouse gets into, chances are the answer's yes._

Dragonite waved at Buizel from a few feet below, Pansage calling up to it, 'Hey, jump! We'll catch you!'

Buizel noticed them and quickly forgot about Mew, releasing the rope and falling onto Dragonite's back, tightly hanging onto it's ring. Pansage held up two rings in one hand, one for Cilan and one for Iris, and Marill gripped one to give to Misty.

* * *

Down on the ground

Barry had been thoroughly lectured by Brock and Misty, and very much regretted commanding Heracross to use Horn Attack on Beautifly.

"Um, guys," he said, "Shouldn't we get back to the Pokeringer match?"

"Ahh!" Brock and Misty exclaimed in unison, "We forgot!"

The two of them quickly turned their eyes back to the sky, focusing on the massive air battle above them, searching for Togekiss and Dragonite. Many pokemon had been knocked out from the fight, but there were still over a hundred in the Battle Cloud. However, the edges of said cloud were hard to make out, compared to the very defined borders it had at the start of the match, signifying that the pokemon were spreading out, attempting to capture a ring instead of eliminating the competition.

While Brock and Misty were distracted, Barry crawled away until he couldn't see them. He then stood up and dusted himself off, only to come face to face with May. She had Beautifly on her shoulder, a ring already clamped onto her wrist, and the princess of Hoenn was _very_ angry at the trainer responsible for Beautifly's injury.

Barry nervously said, "Uh, can we just talk about thi-Ack!"

* * *

In the air...

Dragonite dived. The air rushed past Buizel, Pansage, and Azumarill so fast that they were nearly blown off of Dragonite's back altogether. The speed of the dive actually got them through the thickest part of the Battle Cloud unharmed, and Dragonite slowed down slightly when they reached open air. They passed by Togekiss and Croagunk, who each had a ring, and were quickly coming closer and closer to the hard, dirt ground.

Dragonite pulled up at the very last second, harmlessly passing over Fantina and Volkner, and landing in front of Ash, Iris, and Cilan.

Iris ran up to her pokemon and hugged it, shouting out, "You did it, Dragonite, you did it!"

Pansage hopped off of Dragonite's back and into Cilan's welcoming arms, "You were fantastic as well, Pansage. That Solarbeam was perfectly executed." He took the offered ring from Pansage and slipped it around his left wrist, where the silver ring glowed a slightly eerie blue and shrunk down to fit perfectly around Cilan's wrist.

He held the other ring out to Iris, who gladly fit it around her own wrist, punching the air and exclaiming, "Alright! We've passed the preliminary!"

Buizel jumped down as well and held out the ring to Ash. He took the ring from Buizel's paw and slipped it on. Yet again, the ring glowed blue and shrunk to fit.

"Buizel, you did great. Thanks for getting us through the preliminary." Ash said to the smiling water-type.

Then Iris and Cilan returned their pokemon, and the three trainers joined the rest of the group behind them.

* * *

Brock gently slipped on the silver ring offered to him by Croagunk, observing it as it glowed and shrunk to fit him.

Dawn did the same, along with Paul, Kenny, Misty, Nando and everyone else. Except for Barry and Stalia.

Stalia wasn't crying anymore, but she was still a little sad. She noticed Barry sulking, slightly apart from the rest of the group and walked over, looking for a distraction from her memories.

"What's wrong?" she asked the normally chipper trainer.

Barry sadly responded, "I didn't get a ring. Heracross was knocked out while Brock and Misty were lecturing me, and now I can't compete in the rest of the tournament! I was gonna win it too... But I guess I deserve this after what I said in the courtyard, and attacking May's Beautifly..."

Stalia tilted her head, thinking for a few moments, and then reached into her pocket. "Here." she said, offering her ring, "You can have it. I was going to throw my next match anyway."

"Really?" Barry said, hope and disbelief on his face, "I can have it?"

Stalia nodded.

"Wahoo!" Barry exclaimed, "I can battle in the rest of the tournament! Yes!" He turned to Stalia, "Thanks a lot. But why were you going to throw your match?"

Stalia froze, a panicked expression on her face, "Oh, uh... I was... thinking about entering... but, um... it was my, uh, cousin... my younger cousin, Maya, who convinced me to. And, uh... I, don't really like to battle, so... um... I planned on throwing the match after the preliminary?"

Barry looked slightly incredulous, "Really? Huh, I guess not everyone likes to battle. Thanks again!" He ran over to Paul, back to being his happy and energetic self, trying to get a practice battle out of him later.

Stalia had felt a little sad before, but helping Barry and seeing how happy he was had cheered her up. She picked up Zorua and walked back to the main group, cheerful and happy as she'd been before seeing the mystery pokemon.

* * *

Buizel and Pikachu's side conversation...

Buizel walked over to Pikachu, 'Hey.'

The yellow, mouse-like pokemon turned around to face him, 'Hi Buizel, what's up?'

Buizel looked around for a moment and then leaned in and whispered, 'The weirdest thing happened when I was hanging from that rope._ Mew_ came out of the basket and told me to tell you a message: "Hi, I'm sorry about taking you guys to the Tree last time." It was strange. Not the weirdest thing we've seen, but strange.'

Pikachu looked mildly surprised, 'Huh, well at least Mew feels sorry about it.'

Buizel became curious and asked, 'About what?'

Pikachu replied, 'She pokenapped me and Team Rocket's Meowth, we ended up on that giant tree thing. One of those huge adventures we somehow get into, I'll tell you the rest later. But what was Mew doing inside a mini-hot-air balloon?'

Buiel just shrugged and said, 'Who knows?'

* * *

There was another short burst of static, signifying that the speakers were now on. 'Stalia' winced at the sound._ We've got to fix that later._

Marian announced, "All sixty-four rings have been activated. We will now show the randomized match-ups for Block A on the big screen!"

Everyone's heads turned to the giant screen mounted on the rim of the arena, which flashed a blue and green bubble pattern before the match-ups appeared onscreen. Several match-ups stood out in particular.

**Block A: Misty VS. Volkner, Brock VS. Sabrina, Iris+Cilan VS. Kenny**

The match-ups were shown by a picture of the trainer with a silver border with a flaming orange VS. logo in between that photo and another. A battle team's picture consisted of the two trainers' pictures stuck together without a border in between them. There were twelve individual trainers onscreen, and two battle teams, one of which consisted of Iris and Cilan.

"There will be seven battles taking place in the A Block, all of them will be happening tomorrow." Marian continued, "B Block match-ups will be shown tomorrow at the end of the last match, so make sure you're here, but the actual battles will be taking place the day after. If you are battling tomorrow, you have to be here at the start of the first match at one, or you will be disqualified. The rest of today is free, so have fun and make sure to be back for more battles!"

* * *

**AN:** The _Jenny Haniver_ is a reference to a sci-fi book series I read. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, but get ready for some Team Rocket action next chapter... Check out the story poll on my profile and as always, please review!

Mewtwo: Where am I in all this?

Rio: Unconscious in a locked storage room underneath the stadium.

Mewtwo: Then how am I talking to you?

Rio: It's one of the many mysteries of the pokemon world.

Mewtwo: Seriously.

Rio: Fine, I admit it. I broke open the forth wall with a sledgehammer. Happy?

Mewtwo: No. Now we have to repair it next chapter.

Rio: You just shattered it even more!

Mewtwo: We have to fix it anyway. (Turns to audience) Review. Now.


	11. Ch 11 - Battle Block A Begins!

**Chapter 11 - Battle Block A Begins!**

"Did you see that Buizel?!" Alder exclaimed for the fifth time in as many minutes. He waved his arms in the air and added his own sound effects while he spoke. "Flying through that Battle Cloud with Water Gun and Aqua Jet! Woosh! Through the air. And-and-and-Fshwooom! That Staraptor getting hit with that Solarbeam at the last second?! And when that Croagunk's Poison Sting accidentaly hit the observation ring's window? You know, when Lance freaked out, got tangled in his own cape, bumped into Cynthia, and got her triple-scoop ice cream all over himsel-"

"We get it, Alder." Lance interrupted, annoyed at the Unova champion's more-childish-than-usual behavior (And him bringing up the Poison Sting thing), "The preliminary was amazing, and there were a lot of amazing pokemon and trainers here."

The champions had decided to take a walk all the way around the observation ring before heading out of the stadium with everyone else. Mostly because they didn't want the public to see Alder like this, and Lance covered in sticky, white goop (Bouffalant was in the process of licking it off). They were halfway around the clear, glass ring when Alder had started up on his fifth freak-out. The bad news was that the fifth time was even more annoying than the fourth, which was more annoying than the third, which was more annoying than the second, which was- well, you get the idea. The good news was that his... 'episodes'... were getting farther and farther apart.

"We all know you're excited for the rest of this tournament, Alder." Wallace said, "But please calm down. The first round doesn't even begin until tomorrow."

"He's right, Alder." Cynthia agreed, "Calm down, here, have an ice cream cone."

The Sinnoh region champion handed the red-haired Unova champion a Rawst berry ice cream cone, topped with chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles.

"Hey thanks, Cynthia." Alder gratefully took the ice cream cone and stopped trying to rant about the preliminary match, "I just love how this tournament works. There are so many possibilities for types of battles, any trainer, coordinator, or battle fan would be satisfied. It's amazing! And that preliminary match! Did you see that Buizel flying through the air?"

"Nuh-uh-uh. Wouldn't want to keep yelling like that in front of the public would we? It would ruin the League's image."

"Aahhhh!" The regional champions, once again, fell and tripped over each other in surprise.

Lance ended up on the bottom of the pile, ice cream, chocolate sauce, and sprinkles spilled all over his head and shoulders.

Alder ended up on top of him, complaining, "Awww! I was gonna eat that."

Wallace and Cynthia got lucky, being tossed to opposite sides of Lance and Alder instead of ending up in a pile again.

Bertha stepped out from behind the tall, leafy plant from which she had spoken. "You know, it's almost too easy to scare you four." She casually tossed a lock of hair over her shoulder. _If I didn't know them, I'd be surprised to see four regional champions scared by an old lady._

Alder got off of Lance, and helped the dragon-type specialist to his feet, "Uh, sorry about the ice cream." he nervously said.

"Ugh," Lance said, ignoring Alder, "I was almost clean too."

Alder's Bouffalant trotted back to Lance and resumed licking ice cream off of him. A group of three Taillow flew in through an open section of the glass windows, and they joined Bouffalant in cleaning the goopy, sticky mess off of the unfortunate Dragon Tamer.

Lance shivered and said, "This is disgusting, but better than walking around with melted ice cream all over me." he then accidentally said out loud, "My life is so weird. I wonder why?"

"Because you're friends with us, silly." Alder joked, laughing at Lance's misfortune and his own joke.

"Hmph, I wonder why?" Lance muttered under his breath.

* * *

Very early the next day...

'Mew? Mew?! Where are you?!' an invisible Latias called from the battle field in an empty stadium.

'I'm right behind you, sis.' the playful, pink pokemon said from behind the Eon Dragoness.

Latias turned and spotted Mew casually floating a few feet above the ground, happily eating a piece of cotton candy. Mew was in her actual form, but luckily for the two of them, the entire stadium, and the observation ring, were empty. Then again Mew turned a flip in the air and shoved the rest of the pale pink cotton candy in her mouth.

'Hey, you've called me sister, and you've called cousin, which is it?' Latias asked, curious.

'Oh, you're both! You're like a cousin, and a sister.' the child-like psychic-type happily explained, 'Why was it you were looking for me? Did you want to play hide-and-seek? Or freeze tag? Hopscotch?'

Latias shook her head and interrupted Mew before she could list any more games, 'No, I just need you to tell me where Mewtwo is.'

'Oh.' Mew's face fell, sad that Latias didn't want to play any games, 'He's in the storage room with all the repair stuff is. The key's underneath the trash can next to it.'

Latias watched as Mew turned and rose up in the air, prepared to fly away and find another playmate. 'Hey, Mew. We can play later if you come wake up Mewtwo with me. I don't want to by myself.'

Mew flew back quick as a Linoone, squealing in joy. 'Oh, this is going to be so much fun!'

'Waking up Mewtwo is going to be fun?' Latias asked questioningly.

'Of course not,' Mew said, waving off her confused thoughts, 'I meant playing afterwards! At least until one o'clock, when the battles start again.'

'Oh, okay.' Latias turned to head towards the secret maintenance door built into the shiny, white wall of the battlefield arena, 'Come on, time to wake up Mister grumpy-sleepy-head.'

The pair of psychics floated down the maintenance steps, closing the door behind them and slowly heading to their certain doom-uh, I mean waking up Mewtwo.

* * *

10:15 AM...

Our favorite group of traveling trainers were in the cafeteria of the Pokemon Center. Not all centers had cafeterias, but the larger ones did. They were eating a quick snack while waiting for the tournament to start in the afternoon.

"Hey guys, where's Stalia?" Ash said, taking a bite of a sandwich, "Isn't she up by now?"

Iris leaned forward on the back of his chair, Axew perched on the top of her head, and teasingly said, "Of course she's up by now, she said she needed to go help her aunt with something, besides, _no one_ sleeps as much as you do. It took half-an-hour to wake you up, and another fifteen minutes to drag you away from bed."

Everyone laughed, besides Paul, who just smiled a little.

"I told you you should've taken Pikachu with you." Misty said.

Everyone laughed again, Paul just smirked.

"Why don't we try to get some practice in before the first block starts?" Brock and Cilan asked simultaneously. They glanced at each other again.

"Good idea!" Everyone else agreed. They quickly cleaned up and returned most of their pokemon, heading out to the practice battle fields behind the Pokemon Center, leaving Max behind with Misty's Psyduck.

"Hmmm..." Max was thinking, "Hey, Psyduck. Did you ever notice that Cilan's basically Brock with a few personality quirks?"

"Psy?" the clueless water-type asked, tilting it's head in typical Psyduck manner.

"What am I doing talking to this thing?" Max groaned. He stood up from his knealing position and started walking towards the practice battle fields out back.

Psyduck fell over on it's back and stayed that way, staring at the ceiling. "Duck?" It tilted it's head the other way.

* * *

'You do it.'

'No, you do it.'

'No, you do it!'

'You!'

'You!'

'No, you!'

'Well it's your fault we have to!'

'Fine!'

Mew floated over to a position behind an unconcious Mewtwo's head. Mewtwo was sprawled out, unconcious at the back of a supply closet. Latias and Mew were hovering over him, debating over who should have to wake him up.

Mew reached out with her psychic senses, finding Mewtwo's dreaming mind and gently nudging him back to the waking world. Mewtwo slowly sat up, rubbing the back of his head.

_"Owwww."_ he stood, and then turned around to face Mew,_ "Why on Earth did you hit me over the head with a lead pipe?!"_

'Uh, 'cause you wouldn't let us compete?' Mew tentatively answered.

_"And I will now guess that you did compete, and lost."_ Mewtwo crossed his arms

'Yup!' Mew turned a spiral in the air.

Mewtwo grabbed Mew by the tail and began dragging her out of the storage room.

'Hey! Wait! Where are you going?' Latias asked.

_"We still have a tournament to run, do we not?"_ Mewtwo replied. He left the storage room, dragging Mew behind him, and then teleported away.

_Hmmm..._ Latias put on her Lita disguise and began the walk up to the announcer's booth to pick up a wireless microphone before heading to the observation ring._ I honestly expected a lot more of a reaction from Mewtwo. Maybe he's just playing the role of big brother that Mew assigned him. She really is like a younger sibling._

* * *

12:50 PM...

Those who had battles in Block A had left ten minutes ago, to make sure they weren't late and disqualified. The rest of the group had stayed behind for a while, talking and wondering who they'd be matched up with in their battles.

"Hey Zoey, where did Kenny go?" Barry asked, looking around for his friend but not spotting him anywhere.

"He left with the others in Block A." Zoey responded, "They need to get there early, remember?"

"Oh, yeah!" the hyperactive trainer said, "Shouldn't we get going now? So we don't miss any battles?"

"Yeah." Zoey swung her bag over her shoulder and stood up. She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Hey! Guys! Let's get to the stadium now!"

Everyone called back their pokemon and got up to leave with Zoey. They followed her out of the Pokemon Center and out onto a sidewalk. The stadium was massive, and visible from the Center, so they began walking towards it. Soon they were in the garden-like space surrounding the stadium, and the group took another step closer-only to fall into an all-too-familiar pit trap.

"Ahahahahaha!" a high-pitched female voice was heard laughing from somewhere above them.

A very familiar trio appeared, looking down at the group from the edge of the pit trap.

"Prepare for trouble, and the original motto!"

"And make it double, you know how this goes!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth! That's right!"

"Team Rocket!" Everyone shouted.

"Let's do this the easy way, just hand over your pokemon!" Jessie exclaimed.

"Especially Pikachu!" James added.

"Come on! I thought we lost you guys for once!" Ash yelled at them.

"We'll never lose you!" Meowth said.

"We'll stick to you like glue!" James exclaimed.

"Until you give us Pikachu!" Jessie added.

"Let's get this over with." Paul pulled out a pokeball, "Magmortar, standby!"

Paul's Magmortar appeared next to Team Rocket on the edge of the pit trap.

"Flamethrower."

A column of flames burst forth, hitting Team Rocket, causing an explosion, and sending the irritating trio flying through the air. As per tradition.

"That had to be one of our shortest appearances ever." Jessie said defeatedly.

"At least we got to say the motto." James added, dejectedly.

"But we're still..." Meowth said sadly.

"Blasting off agaaiiiinnnnnn!" The trio dissapeared from view, causing a brief twinkle in the sky.

* * *

"Darn it! Now we're late!" Barry yelled irritably while pulling himself out of the hole to join the others dusting themselves off, "We could've missed Brock and Misty's battles by now!"

Dawn picked Piplup off of the ground and said, "You can tell that to Team Rocket the next time we see 'em."

Zoey stood up and pointed to the screen mounted on the outside stadium wall. "Look! We might've missed Brock's and Misty's battles, but Kenny's is starting right now!"

* * *

Sure enough, Kenny's battle against Iris and Cilan was starting as they spoke.

Marian announced, "This battle will be a 2-on-2 double battle between Kenny of Twinleaf Town, against Iris of the Village of Dragons and Cilan of Striaton City! The battle will be over when one side has only one pokemon remaining!"

The referee looked first to Kenny, and then to Iris and Cilan on the opposite side of the field. He nodded and exclaimed, "Begin!"

Kenny shouted, "Go! Breloom and Empoleon!" he threw their pokeballs, releasing the two pokemon.

"Come on out, Emolga!" Iris sent out the flying and electric-type.

"Let's go, Pansage!" Cilan sent out Pansage for the match.

Iris looked at Kenny, "You first." she said with a confident and determined smile.

* * *

**AN:** Sorry if this chapter isn't very well written, I just couldn't seem to focus on it. I'll probably come back and redo it at some point. Thanks for reading and please review!

Rio: Mewtwo! Get over here and help me!

Mewtwo: Ugh, fine. (Psychically repairs the wall)

Rio: Finally. What were you doing just sitting over there?!

Mewtwo: Thinking about ways to get back at you for locking me in a storage closet.

Rio: (Sweatdrops) Oh, uh... but that was Mew!

Mew: You made me do it!

Mewtwo: See? I'll get you someday. Just not right now. Maybe I could lock you in a storage closet for a week with only a few gallons of water.

Rio: You can't do that!

Mewtwo: Why not? You don't own the Pokemon franchise, so I can do whatever I want to you without any severe repercussions.

Rio: Because-because-uh... I-I'll put you in a shipping if you do!

Mewtwo: I know you dislike ships, you wouldn't dare.

Rio: (flips open laptop and opens Wordpad) Yes, I would.

Mewtwo: (Glares) Fine. I'll let you get away with it. This time.

Mew: Reviews please!


	12. Ch 12 - A Great Battle and More to Come!

**Chapter 12 - A Great Battle and More to Come!**

"Let's start off with a new combination! Breloom, use Energy Ball, and Empoleon use Hydropump!" Kenny ordered.

Breloom gathered the glowing, green sphere of energy and launched it at Pansage and Emolga, who prepared to dodge the somewhat slow-moving projectile. Then, immediately after the sphere was fired, Empoleon sent a twirling torrent of water blasting at the slower moving Energy Ball.

The Hydropump attack hit the sphere, blasting it forward with such speed and force that the Energy Ball began spinning in the same direction as the Hydropump. The sphere's spinning movement caused glowing green lines of energy to fuse with the Hydropump, shimmering and twirling in the torrent of water.

Emolga and Pansage were both as unprepared for the combination attack as their trainers. The now speeding and spinning Energy Ball, propelled towards them, and quickly followed by, a grass-type energy infused Hydropump, hit Emolga. Although the combination attack would have done a lot of damage normally, Emolga's Flying and Electric typing allowed it to take only half the normal damage.

"An amazing combination from Breloom and Empoleon! Kenny is clearly showing off his skill as a Coordinator!" Marian commented through the speaker system.

"What a combination!" Cilan exclaimed in awe, "But don't think it'll have us beat! Pansage, use Bite on Breloom!"

"Emolga, Hidden Power on Empoleon!" Iris ordered.

Pansage leapt forward, preparing a Bite attack and charging towards Kenny's grass and fighting-type.

"Breloom, dodge it!" Kenny commanded, "You too, Empoleon!"

Breloom dodged Pansage's Bite attack by jumping over the pokemon at the last second. Unfortunately for Kenny and his team, Pansage was prepared for a last second dodge and grabbed the end of Breloom's tail with both hands. It spun Breloom around, using the gathered up momentum to increase it's spinning speed. After gathering enough momentum and force, Pansage threw Breloom up into the air, and as Breloom neared the ground, Pansage used Bite. It made contact. Hard. Pansage bit down on Breloom's tail, and then released it's hold to slam Breloom to the ground.

"Wow! What an amazing series of attacks! That was unconventional, but incredibly fast and effective!" Marian commented.

Kenny's Empoleon was well-trained and easily dodged Emolga's Hidden Power attack. The flying squirrel-like pokemon landed in between Empoleon, who was very near Kenny, and Breloom, who was in the middle of the battlefield.

Although the Bite attack and unconventional spin-throw-bite-slam attack had done damage, it wasn't enough t put Breloom down. The grass and fighting-type pokemon stood up and looked for Pansage, but Pansage wasn't anywhere on the battlefield.

"Where'd it go?!" Kenny was a little worried, he'd gotten off to a good start with his Energy Ball-Hydropump combination, but somehow, Iris and Cilan had turned it around.

Breloom moved a little closer to Empoleon and Emolga, who were locked in a fierce staring match, neither of them willing to look away and give their opponent an oppurtunity to attack. Breloom moving gave Kenny a view of Pansage's escape method. A hole.

"Oh no! Pansage must've used Dig after slamming Breloom to the ground!" now Kenny was really worried, "It could come up anywhere!"

"Bad move, Kenny." Iris said, "You're focused on Pansage, not Emolga. Discharge!"

Emolga's cheeks sparked for a split second, and then the flying and electric-type launched sizzling and sparking jolts of electricity all over the battlefield. Both Breloom and Empleon were hit by the attack, Pansage, having used Dig, was unaffected. The Discharge had knocked both of Kenny's pokemon to a spot directly in front of him. They stood up, damaged, but still very able to continue.

"You see, Kenny." Cilan began with a confident wink, "Discharge is a double-edged sword. It hits both allies and opponents, so using Dig wasn't an attack, but a safeguard and a distraction." Immediately after saying that, Pansage came up through the same hole it had dug before, and bounded back to Iris and Cilan's side of the battle field. Emolga glided over and landed on Pansage's head, a confident smirk adorning her face.

_No wonder he's a Gym Leader._ Kenny thought, he wasn't certain he could win the battle anymore, his good start had flown right out the window. _Wait, I've still got a move that could turn this around!_

"Empoleon, Breloom, we can still win this! Just stay where you are!" the Coordinator commanded.

"Well, if you're not going to move, we'll take our turn!" Cilan said, "Pansage, go in for another Bite attack on Breloom!"

Pansage charged towards Breloom, a confident and detemined expression on it's face.

As soon as Pansage passed the halfway point on the battlefield, Kenny ordered, "Drill Peck on Pansage, Empoleon!"

Empoleon launched itself towards Pansage, it's beak elongating and glowing as the steel and water-type began rotating itself faster and faster until it became a twirling blur.

"No! Pansage, pull out!" Cilan feared that the super-effective flying-type attack would seriously hurt his grass-type pokemon.

Pansage stopped in it's tracks, but was unable to move to the right fast enough to miss the Drill Peck completely. Empoleon didn't hit the grass-type dead on, but it's Drill Peck got a nice hit on Pansage's left shoulder.

Pansage got up and quickly retreated back to it's position next to Emolga, holding it's shoulder with one hand. Empoleon also retreated back to Breloom and Kenny, as it was still hurt by Emolga's super-effective Discharge.

"We can't quit now. Pansage, can you go on?" Cilan asked his pokemon.

Pansage nodded. It's shoulder was injured, but the grass-type was determined to fight as hard as it could.

After seeing that Pansage was able to continue, Iris turned to Cilan and looked him in the eye. Cilan, knowing what she wanted to do by the sly and determined gleam in her eye, nodded.

"Kenny!" Iris yelled to the Coordinator she was facing in battle, "We'd like to thank you."

"Huh?" Kenny was thrown off by that comment, "What do you mean thank me?"

"We want to thank you for showing us an amazing combination attack at the very beginning of the battle." Iris replied, a sly expression adorning her face.

"Uh, okay." Kenny was still confused.

"So we'd like to show you one of our own!" Cilan finished for Iris, "We had a bit of help from Dawn on this one. She's quite good at making combinations. I call this one Bullet Seed Shock!"

Iris shrugged, "I still think we need a different name for it, but let's do it! Emolga, use the move Pikachu taught you straight up in the air!"

"And Pansage, get behind Emolga, and then Bullet Seed!" Cilan ordered.

Pansage hopped behind Emolga, a few feet away from her as to not get shocked. Emolga's yellow cheeks sparked in a way reminiscent of Pikachu's and then the little electric-type let loose with a giant jolt of electricity that flew into the air. Some pokemon liked to have signature moves, Snivy had attract and Emolga had Volt Switch. But this time, Emolga attempted to use Pikachu's signature move, Thunderbolt.

* * *

In the stands somewhere...

"Hey, I think Emolga's trying to use Thunderbolt!" Ash exclaimed to his friends.

"Ash, that looks more like a Thundershock." Max replied.

"Hey, I said tried didn't I?"

"Yeah, I guess." Max leaned over low wall in front of him as far as he safely could. "I'm glad we made it to this battle. We might've missed Brock's and Misty's, but this one is amazing! And it's only the first round too!"

* * *

"Rapid fire through the electricity! Hurry while Emolga can keep it up!" Cilan ordered his Pansage.

Pansage did as it was told, rapidly firing Bullet Seed attacks through Emolga's electrical attack while it lasted. Before the Bullet Seed passed through the electricity, it was just a regular attack. After it passed through, each speeding seed became charged with electrical energy, leaving trails of sparks and lines of electricity as they passed through the air.

Breloom and Empoleon were too shocked (yes, it's a bad pun) to dodge the attack. It was moving too fast and was too widespread for them to get out of it's path anyway. The 'Bullet Seed Shock' as Cilan so eloquently put it, hit it's targets, giving Empoleon a series of quick, super-effective shocks. Breloom was buffeted by the attacks as well, and while the shocks weren't very effective, and the Bullet Seed wasn't either, the attack overall managed to do quite a bit of damage.

"Quick, Breloom, use Energy Ball at Pansage!" Kenny desperately ordered.

Breloom gathered the shimmering, green sphere of energy, only for it to be hit by an electrically charged Bullet Seed. The resulting explosion kicked up quite a bit of dust and smoke, making it impossible to see Breloom or Empoleon.

"Pansage, stop." Cilan told the grass-type.

Pansage stopped firing and hopped back into it's position next to Emolga.

"Emolga, you can take a break now." Iris said to the worn-out electric-type.

The flying-type gladly stopped her continuous Thundershock, breathing hard and hunched over from exhaustion.

Iris, Cilan, and Kenny searched through the dust cloud, looking for any indication of what happened to Kenny's pokemon. If they were still capable of battle, Pansage and Emolga were too tired to do anything to counter an attack.

Marian announced through the speaker system, "We can't see anything through that dust cloud, but we'll find out what's happened to Empoleon and Breloom soon enough."

They waited, and the dust from the exploding Energy Ball cleared.

"Ah! Empoleon! Breloom!" Kenny called out to his unconscious pokemon.

"And it's a double knockout!" Marian announced to the audience. "It looks like Iris and Cilan will be moving on to the next round!"

"We... we won!" Iris exclaimed, hugging Emolga tightly while jumping up and down in happiness and relief. "We really won! You were amazing out there Emolga!"

"We really did." Cilan said more calmly, "We're going on to the next round!" he picked up Pansage. "You did fantastic, Pansage. It was your subtle but clear and lasting spice that won us the match!" The connoisseur returned the grass-type to it's pokeball.

"We really won." he said, shaking off his disbelief.

* * *

In the stands just after the final match...

"At least one team from our group finally won." Brock said to Cilan.

"But that would have been the case either way." he replied.

"Oh, yeah." Brock scratched his head in slight embarrassment, "But still, congratulations to you and Iris.

"Thanks."

* * *

About a minute later...

"Where were you guys during my match?!" Misty yelled, her expression fierce and her hands on her hips.

"W-we ran into Team Rocket!" Ash tried to excuse himself and the others from missing Misty's battle.

Her rage seemed to completely disappear, replaced by amusement and slight disbelief. "Really? Those idiots are still stalking you?"

"Uh, yeah."

"If they've followed you this long, I doubt you'll ever lose them." Brock added, "Seriously. If you can't lose those three flying all the way to Unova, you won't lose them by anything short of death."

"Well, they're just a part of life by now." Ash said to two of his oldest friends, "Or at least a part of mine. We missed both your matches, how did your battles go anyway?"

Misty replied first, Azumarill now in her arms. "Well, mine was pretty one-sided. I had a major type disadvantage. In short: I lost three to one." she then stubbornly added, "But I would've won if I'd been matched up with anyone without an advantage."

"Heh. What about you, Brock?"

"Well, I lost. But I'm not a Gym Leader anymore and there isn't Team Rocket to battle every single day anymore. I'm out of practice." Brock told Ash.

"There's that." Misty added, "And there's the fact that he was terrified of Sabrina."

They had a good laugh at that.

* * *

At the edge of their group...

Kenny sat down in his seat, unlike everyone else who was standing. His expression was one of sadness and disappointment in himself. Dawn noticed him sitting there and walked over, taking a seat next to him with Piplup in tow. Kenny looked up as she sat down next to him.

"Hey, Kenny." she said, "What's wrong? Is it because you didn't win?"

Kenny turned away from her.

"Come on, Kenny." Dawn said, fiercer now, "Tell me what's wrong."

Kenny faced her again and replied, "It's just that I've lost early on twice now! The Sinnoh Grand Festival, and now here, at the Legends Tournament. I can't seem to even make it far in anything! I'm a failure!"

Dawn's expression softened, she gently placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and Piplup jumped into his lap. "You aren't a failure, Kenny. The Grand Festival was an accident, and as for this tournament... Well, I bet if it was a contest battle, you would've won hands down! Iris and Cilan are just really good battlers who showed amazing teamwork. Besides, Brock and Misty lost too and you don't see them moping around, do you? Cheer up! You're surrounded by friends, old and new, and you're at the tournament of the decade! Be glad for what you have and what you've done, not what you haven't! Look to the future."

Piplup nodded an affirmative and sent a weak Bubblebeam at Kenny's face. They popped as soon as they made contact and the gentle tickle of that action made Kenny laugh.

"Stop it!" He jokingly picked up Piplup and threw the Sinnoh starter in the air and caught it again. Kenny turned back to Dawn, a smile now on his face and said, "You're right. I'd just be stupid to mope around like that. What's happened happened. It's what I do about it that matters."

"There's the Kenny I know." Dawn said with a grin, setting Piplup down in her seat while she stood up.

* * *

"Hey guys!" Stalia waved to her friends, Zorua held in the crook of her elbow.

"Stalia!" Iris exclaimed, "There you are! Were you really helping your aunt with something this whole time?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." she nervously replied, "Just wait, they're about to announce next round's match-ups!"

"Attention all trainers in the tournament! We have the match-ups for tomorrow's round!" Marian announced to the trainers spread out through the stadium. "The match-ups for Battle Block B are now on the big screen!"

Everyone turned their attention to the large screen on the inside of the stadium. On the screen the match-ups were shown. Three of them stood out to our favorite group of pokemon trainers.

**Battle Block B:** Ash VS. Nando, May VS. Dawn, Zoey VS. Jessilina+Jamen

"Wow, so I'm up against Nando again!" Ash exclaimed upon seeing that he was in the next block.

"And I've got a rematch with Dawn!" May excitedly shouted.

"And I'm up against Jessilina!" Zoey said, "And that other guy."

"I plan on giving our battle everything I have, Ash." Nando said to the excited trainer.

"Wouldn't have it any other way." he replied to the musician.

"Attention trainers!" Marian called through the speaker system, "If you aren't in Block A or B, your first round battle will be in Block C or D. Block B will begin tomorrow at one in the afternoon, same as today. If you are competing tomorrow, please be here by the start of the first match and report to the trainers section of the observation ring where you will wait for your match and watch the battles before yours. The rest of the day and tomorrow morning is yours to do whatever you'd like. We've seen some great battles so far, and there's more to come!"

* * *

**AN:** I think a did a good job on writing this chapter. It's better than the last one, that's for sure. This was my first time writing an actual battle, so please review and tell me how you think I did describing it.

Mewtwo: ...

Rio: ...

Mewtwo: ...

Rio: What? No comment on the chapter?

Mewtwo: It was okay.

Rio: How about the battle? And Kenny moping?

Mewtwo: No comment on the battle, that's what reviews are for. Kenny moping about losing early twice made sense.

Rio: That's it? No ramming the fourth wall with a bulldozer? No severe criticism? Bulldozer?

Mewtwo: Nope.

Rio: Oh, okay. So we're really not going to wreck the fourth wall any more than this conversation does by itself?

Mewtwo: Nope.

Rio: Well you're awfully quiet today. Comments on the battle?

Mewtwo: I already told you. That's what reviews are for.

Rio: ...

Mewtwo: ...

Rio: I think the silence echoed.

Mewtwo: ...

Rio: Just review so me and Mewtwo have something to chat about next chapter.


	13. Ch 13 - A Morning Reprieve

**Chapter 13 - A Morning Reprieve**

11:00 AM...

Those in the group who were scheduled to have their battles later in the day were training on the practice battlefields behind the Pokemon Center. The weather was clear, bright, and warm, and was awkwardly deemed, "A perfect day to get in a bit of practice." by Brock and Cilan at the same time.

Max was sitting in the shade of a maple tree next to Kenny, watching as May practiced contest combinations with Nando. With both of them being coordinators, you'd think they'd have a major rivalry going on.

Kenny then voiced his exact thoughts, "You know, Max, with both of 'em being coordinators and competing in the same tournament, you'd think they'd have a big rivalry or something."

May's younger brother shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I guess it's because they aren't facing each other yet. Just look at the way May keeps glancing at what Dawn's doing, and vice versa. Only one of 'em is making it past today and they know it."

Kenny watched as May sent out Beautifly and Nando recalled Lopunny for Kricktune. "Yeah, that's probably it. Ash and Nando have the same thing going on, they keep away from each other, but at the same time look like they want to battle already."

Max climbed onto a lower tree branch and swung his legs back and forth, a little to the right of Kenny's head. "I think it's because they've all battled each other in big competitions before. May and Dawn faced off in the Wallace Cup finals, and Ash and Nando battled in the Sinnoh League."

Kenny replied to him, "Did they? Wait, how'd you know that? I thought you lived in Hoenn."

"I watched both on TV." Max told him, "Both were great matches. It's kind of strange though, how they got matched up with each other again. Like someone threw them against each other on purpose."

Kenny laughed and then joined him on the tree branch, still watching as May and Nando practiced. "Yeah, right. The computer makes all the match-ups, it's just coincidence they're battling again. What, did you think that some 'mysterious force' is making all of this happen?"

Max was about to make a sarcastic remark when Brock and Cilan called out to the whole group, "Come on, guys! That's enough training for now, your pokemon need to rest up for the tournament! Let's check out the souveneir stands, they should be open by now!"

Those in the group who had their pokmon out recalled them and the began spliting into smaller groups depending on where they wanted to go. Most of the girls in the group decided to head to a row of stands they'd seen selling promotional clothes and decorations, while everyone else just decided to wander around.

Max jumped off of the branch and landed on the ground, Kenny did the same. "They sure are making the most of their weird similarities."

Kenny replied, "Yeah, it's kind of freaky. They both have the same roles and they both act weird in certain situations. They even say the same exact things sometimes."

"Come on, you guys." Barry called out to the two of them, "Hurry up! We're going to go pick up some souveneirs to bring back home!"

The two new friends followed Barry as he rushed off to buy souveneirs.

* * *

Brock's group at the shopping area...

"Alright, I still need to buy some stuff for my younger siblings."

"You know you have a lot of younger siblings, right?" Iris said to him.

"Why'd you think I brought the wagon?" Brock replied. Sure enough, he was towing a large red wagon behind the group, already half filled with souveneirs and items to bring home to his family.

As Brock, Ash, Iris, and Stalia passed in front of a plain-looking stall, the owner of that stall yelled out to them, "Step right up! Come and buy my special golden Magikarp! It will evolve into a golden Gyarados!"

"Uh, no thanks." The group replied.

The pushy salesman exclaimed, "No Magikarp?! Alright then, what about a special silver Feebas? Just train it and teach it tricks, and you could put on a Silver Feebas Show! It will make you rich!"

Before anyone could refuse the floundering Feebas, a blue-haired man they recognized as Jessilina's battle team partner shoved past them and shouted at the salesman, "You! You've swindled me out of a small fortune! Give me back my money!"

"Uh oh. I've got to go!" he hurriedly packed up his simplistic shop and ran off, 'Jamen' chasing after him.

"Well that was weird." Iris said, "Hey, look!" she pointed at a shop located in the shadow of the stadium.

The group of four walked over to the shop, which was filled with silvery-blue statues. It was filled with small statues of flowers and plants, along with life-sized statues of small pokemon.

"Wow!" Iris gazed at a life-size statue of a Dratini, "It's so realistic!"

"These are amazing, the detail is incredible." Brock said admiringly.

"They're kind of creeping me out." Ash said to the group, backing away a little.

"Same here." Stalia pulled Zorua a little closer to her.

The owner of the stand came over to the front. He was a plump, dark-haired man in a simple outfit of a light blue T-shirt and white shorts. "Welcome. I sell statues here, my boss is the one who makes them. Would you like any?"

"Um, actually, these statues are a bit... creepy. But they are really good." Iris said to the man, "I guess I'll take that paperweight shaped like an Oran berry."

She made the purchase and the group continued on their way, stopping at a stand selling penants, necklaces, and plastic models of the stadium. Brock bought several souveneirs for his siblings and they began the walk back to the Pokemon Center so he could drop off everything he'd bought.

"The stores here sell some weird things." Stalia said as they passed someone offering them Aipom sock puppets.

"You said it." Iris nodded her head, glancing back at an old lady selling pokemon totem poles.

Ash turned to Brock and said to his friend, "I still can't believe you bought a plastic replica of the stadium."

"And the plastic action figure of Alder." Iris added, "It's really weird that they make those."

Stalia commented, "Did you really have to buy a Steelix themed ironing board?"

* * *

They arrived at the Pokemon Center and headed to their rooms, where Brock began packing up the souveneirs he bought, somehow fitting them all in his backpack.

"Where'd the wagon go?" Iris asked, "You know what, never mind. It's 12:45, Ash, you have to get to the stadium!"

* * *

12:50 PM the elite's section of the observation ring...

Alder ran up to the other regional champions, pausing to catch his breath when he caught up to them.

"What is it, Alder?" Lance asked.

Alder stood upright again, and then reached into a shopping bag he was carrying.

"Look!" he held up four plastic figurines. "They made plastic figurines of us!" He gave each of the others their own miniature likeness, and then held up his own. "Heh heh, it's mini me!"

The others just stared at him and their figurines, completely quiet until Lance broke the heavy silence. "I'm kind of creeped out by this."

The others (besides Alder) nodded their agreement.

"Why don't we just watch the tournament? The first battle's about to start." Cynthia volunteered a distraction.

* * *

On the battlefield...

"The first match of Battle Block B is about to begin!" Marian announced to the spectators, "It's Ash VS. Nando and the battle format is... a single one-on-one match!"

The referee checked to see that both Ash and Nando understood the rules and were ready to start, when he was certain they did, he raised his flags. He shouted, "Begin!"

* * *

**AN:** I know this chapter is short, but it's just a bit of comedic filler. Ash and Nando's battle is next chapter, I promise. This tournament is the very first of it's kind, seriously, I've never found a fanfiction that includes a tournament with randomly selected battle types before. Please review!

Rio: Mewtwo and I are having a discussion on reviews. Here's a review from twobagelscollide. That's an...interesting username. Anyway, twobagelscollide said that the battle scene was easy to visualize, thanks for commenting on it. They also said that they forgot Cilan was a Gym Leader at some point... didn't we all?

Mewtwo: I didn't.

Rio: It was a rhetorical question.

Mewtwo: Next.

Rio: Fine, fine. Analon said, "After having so much experience with thundershocks and thunderbolts, Ash should be able to distinguish between them..."

Mewtwo: Maybe only after being hit by the attack.

Rio: ... Did you just make a joke?

Mewtwo: ... No.

Rio: You sure?

Mewtwo: ... Yes.

Rio: Alright. What did you think of this chapter?

Mewtwo: Much more humor than the last. More conversation too. Get to the battle already, and speed up the serious background plot.

Rio: Hey! I haven't gotten to the background plot yet! It needs to move slower than the tournament plot. Now quit giving storyline hints!

Mewtwo: (roles eyes) Fine. Shoo. Get out. Go on. Review.

Mew: Manners, big bro. Be polite, say please and thank you.

Mewtwo: Oh, fine. _Please _review.


	14. Ch 14 - Ash vs Nando

**Chapter 14 - Ash vs. Nando**

"Go, Lopunny!"

"Come on out, Sceptile!"

The two pokemon called out appeared on the battlefield at the same time, both of them assuming battle ready positions.

Neither side made a move after sending out their pokemon. Even the crowds in the stands seemed to be at a standstill. Both Ash and Nando seemed to be waiting for the other to make the first move, but eventually, Ash decided to strike first.

"Sceptile, Leaf Blade!"

Sceptile leapt into action, dashing forward to attack, It's right arm raised above it's head, Leaf Blade ready to strike once in range.

"What speed!" Marian said through the speaker system.

"Lopunny, Protect."

Lopunny jumped back a few feet and crossed it's ears, a glowing, green, sphere was cast around itself. From safely inside, Lopunny winked at Sceptile, taunting, daring it to try and break through the barrier.

Sceptile ignored Lopunny's taunt, but when it's Leaf Blade attack struck the barrier hard, and was still unable to break through, Sceptile grew a little annoyed. It stuck at the barrier again, but couldn't beat the sphere, after one more slash at Lopunny's Protect Sceptile jumped away in case of an attack from the normal-type.

"And Protect holds out under the blow of Sceptile's Leaf Blade!" Marian continued.

"Lopunny, Blizzard!"

Lopunny's Protect came down, and the normal-type opened it's mouth, and the Blizzard attack came blasting out, the ice and snow blown towards Sceptile by a cold and accurate wind.

"Dodge it using Detect, Sceptile!"

Sceptile's eyes glowed a faint blue, and it then leapt over and to the left of the Blizzard attack, now knowing where it would've hit.

"And Sceptile dodges what could've been a fatal blow, just missing the supereffective Blizzard!" Marian commentated.

"Now let's try that new move, Energy Ball, Sceptile!" Ash told his pokemon.

Sceptile formed the attack in it's hands, the shimmering sphere of energy growing. Sceptile launched the attack, and Energy Ball spiraled through the air, aimed directly at Lopunny.

"Dodge it, Lopunny!" Nando commanded.

Lopunny actually jumped over the attack as it passed underneath, performing a mid-air somersault and landing gracefully on it's feet.

"What an elegant jump!" Marian said.

"Focus Blast, Lopunny!" Nando wanted to land a hit soon.

Lopunny formed the attack in it's hands, while Sceptile, who was in the middle of the battlefield, did nothing to try and get away.

"Fire, Lopunny!" Nando ordered.

Lopunny fired the Focus Blast attack, the blue sphere flying towards Sceptile. Even as the attack came closer and closer, Sceptile just stood and waited.

"Jump over it, Sceptile!" Ash yelled, "Flip and grab Lopunny!"

Sceptile leaped over the oncoming blue sphere, flipping over in mid-air just before passing over Lopunny. Lopunny looked up as Sceptile passed overhead, just before Sceptile grabbed it by the arms and flipped the normal-type over it's head, slamming Lopunny to the ground, hard. A small cloud of dust formed from the impact.

"No! Lopunny!" Nando worriedly shouted, "Are you alright?"

Lopunny stood up, injured and scratched up a bit, but unwilling to give up. It backed away and moved into a defensive position, carefully watching Sceptile for any movement.

"Lopunny is flipped over Sceptile's head, being slammed to the ground!" Marian said, "That's got to hurt! But Lopunny won't give up that easily, this match goes on!"

For a moment, neither side made a move.

"Sceptile, Leaf Blade!"

Sceptile charged forward, the four leaves on it's arms glowing a bright green and forming into two, the attack ready to strike.

"Quick, Lopunny, use Protect!"

Lopunny crossed it's long ears again, and cast the green force field around itself. Sceptile's Leaf Blade struck the barrier just as hard as before, still unable to break through. Sceptile struck again and again, but nothing could penetrate, after striking for the fifth time, it jumped back and resumed a defensive position.

"Blizzard, once more!" Nando commanded.

The green barrier disappeared, then immediately after, Lopunny opened it's mouth and fired the Blizzard attack at Sceptile.

"Detect, Sceptile!" Ash told the grass-type.

Sceptile's eyes glowed blue, and the Forest Pokemon leapt to the right, just barely dodging the ice-type attack.

"This seems like a very defensive match!" Marian commented.

"Jump Kick, Lopunny!" Nando shouted, still calm and collected despite the fact that he still had yet to land a single, glancing blow.

Lopunny jumped into the air, and a spinning roundhouse kick landed on Sceptile's chest, forcing the grass-type back and landing flat on the ground.

"And Nando finally manages to land a hit on Sceptile!" Marian continued, "But Sceptile isn't down for the count yet, folks!"

It was true, Sceptile had gotten back up, just as unwilling to go down easily as Lopunny. The Forest Pokemon was able to continue, and ready to fight.

"Leaf Blade again, Sceptile!" Ash yelled.

Sceptile struck hard and fast, and with Lopunny still nearby on the field, Leaf Blade hit it's mark, landing on Lopunny's left shoulder.

"Laa!" Lopunny grunted in pain.

"Leaf Blade has hit Lopunny!" Marian announced, "But Lopunny still seems able to continue."

* * *

In the observation ring, there was a special section reserved for Lita and Matthew, both of whom were sitting on the bench, watching the ongoing battle through the glass panes facing the battlefield. This special section was rather small compared to the other rooms in the ring, only about the size of the average living room. The carpet was blue in this room, and the walls a creamy yellow.

There were automatic doors on the two walls connected to the rest of the ring, and to the left of this room, was the wider, swimming pool sized room where trainers waiting for their match to start waited.

"That Lopunny is so graceful!" May gushed, "It looks like a dancer on the battlefield."

"Nando trained his pokemon well. " Dawn replied, "And Lopunny's powerful too."

"This is a great battle, look at the way Sceptile and Lopunny keep dodging!" May said.

"Don't forget," Dawn responded, "Our battle's up next, and we're gonna make it one to remember!"

* * *

Lopunny and Sceptile were on opposite sides of the battlefield again, watching the other to see if they'd make a move.

"Energy Ball, Sceptile!" Ash ordered.

"Lopunny, Protect yourself!" Nando responded to Ash's decision.

Sceptile fired the grass-type attack from it's hands, and Lopunny put up the protective barrier once more. Energy Ball hit the barrier, but, as expected, did nothing.

Ash smiled, "Now, Leaf Blade, Sceptile!"

Sceptile dashed forward, the leaves on it's arms elongating and forming into the attack. As Sceptile neared the fading barrier of Protect, Nando desperately ordered, "Protect again, Lopunny!"

The barrier came up once more, and Lopunny was safe inside. Sceptile faltered for a bit, knowing that nothing had penetrated the sheild before.

"Keep going, Sceptile!" Ash yelled, "Leaf Blade on Lopunny!"

Sceptile obeyed it's trainer's commands, and slashed at the green barrier. Leaf Blade hit once, twice, three times, doing nothing. But then on the fourth blow against Protect, the barrier failed, and disappeared. Lopunny and Nando had expressions of shock and worry on their faces, knowing that without Protect, Lopunny was vulnerable.

"Oh no!" Nando gasped, "I have forgotten that using Protect twice in a row gives it a better chance of failing!"

"Sceptile, use Energy Ball!"

Sceptile formed the attack and pushed it's hands out, firing the glowing sphere. Lopunny, in close range and without protection was hit by the Energy Ball in the stomach. The attack exploded once it hit, sending a small cloud of dust into the air, through the dust two vague shapes could be made out.

The dust cleared, and the two pokemon were visible. Sceptile was standing, Lopunny as well. Both pokemon were tired, injured, and breathing heavily, they looked each other in the eyes, and Lopunny smiled. Then, the normal-type collapsed in a heap on the ground, unconcious.

"Lopunny is unable to battle!" the referee announced, "The winner is Sceptile, and Ash Ketchum will be moving on to the second round!"

After the referee finished speaking, Nando's silver bracelet, the one his pokemon had retrieved from a balloon, split in two, and fell off. Nando smiled, and bent down to pick it up, scooping it into the palm of one hand.

The referee came over to him and said, "You're allowed to keep that as a souveneir." he then walked back to the side of the field, waiting for the next match to be called.

Nando began walking to the field exit when Ash caught up behind him. "Hey, Nando!" he called out, "Thanks for a great battle. Lopunny was really fast!"

Nando turned and replied, "It is I who should be thanking you. I have learned from our battle. And I think Sceptile was just a little faster." he smiled.

* * *

Lita stood up from the bench she had been sitting on and walked towards the left doors. She stepped through into the other room and looked around, her eyes falling on two coordinators looking out the windows. She called out, "May, Dawn, you're up!"

* * *

**AN:** May and Dawn's match is up next, and there's a poll on my profile that will determine the winner. It'll stay open for a few days, but it's going to close up soon, and then the decision's final. Please vote!

Mewtwo: This battle wasn't all that spectacular, but it works.

Rio: I know, I know. But I want more than just your opinion on it, you're so negative.

Mewtwo: I'm growing bored of this conversation.

Rio: Fine then, your little sister can end it off.

Mew: Yippee!(Turns to audience) Please review!


	15. Ch 15 - May vs Dawn

**Chapter 15 - May vs. Dawn**

"And now, here's the next match, May vs. Dawn!" Marian announced.

* * *

In the announcer's booth, Marian sat in the chair, microphone in hand. She had a laptop sitting on a stool next to her, it was hooked up to the control panel, and would randomly select the battle format. Words scrolled across the blue background faster than she could track, and when they slowed and finally stopped, the giant screen mounted on top of the announcer's booth would display in silver letters the type of battle it would be.

She watched as the words on the screen (the laptop, not the giant one) slowed, and then stopped. She raised the microphone to her mouth and spoke.

"This match will be a double contest performance!" her words rang out throughout the stadium. "Dawn will go first."

* * *

Down on the battlefield...

The side of the battlefield where the referee was sitting sunk down into the ground, a few seconds later, it rose up again with the three contest judges. Mr. Contesta on one side, Nurse Joy on the other, and Mr. Sukizo in the middle.

"Piplup, Quilava, spotlight!" Dawn sent out her two pokemon.

They emerged in a flash of light, dramatically posed and ready to compete.

"Here's a new combination!" Dawn exclaimed, "Piplup, use Bubblebeam!"

Piplup spun in place and fired a slow moving Bubblebeam, the blue bubbles settling in a giant circle around Piplup and Quilava. Piplup didn't stop spinning once the circle was completed though, the water-type starter simply raised it's aim a little and continued firing, the bubbles layering on top of each other like bricks, eventually surrounding the two pokemon in a giant Bubblebeam hemisphere.

"It looks almost like a Bubblebeam igloo!" Marian commented.

Dawn smiled, Just wait until you see what's next. "Quilava, Flame Wheel countershield now!"

Inside the Bubblebeam dome, Quilava spun on it's side and covered itself with fire. A spinning disc of fire, with streams of flame twirling from the sides became visible inside the dome as the streams popped bubbles on the edges of the dome, causing the spheres being supported by them to fall and pop as well.

"Drill Peck, Piplup!" Dawn ordered.

Piplup spun, jumped, and used Drill Peck straight through the top of the dome, a trail of glittering water droplets behind it. At the peak of it's ascent, Piplup stopped spinning and waved to the audience, just before going into a slow rotation as it fell.

The last of the bubbles were popped by Quilava's streams of fire, droplets of water shining in a ring around the border of the fire streams.

"Alright!" Dawn happily exclaimed.

Then, Piplup landed dead center on the horizontal Flame Wheel.

"Piplup pip piplup pip!" the water-type jumped off of Quilava, who stopped it's Flame Wheel soon after. Piplup began running in circles, trying to put out it's flaming tail feathers.

"Oh no, Piplup!" Dawn pulled the sides of her hat in embarrassment.

"And there seems to be bit of an upset, Piplup has caught fire!" Marian exclaimed.

Piplup stopped running around in circles and rolled on the ground until the fire was out. "Piplup." the water-type sighed in relief, and then remembered that the performance was still on. "Pip? Piplup!" It tried to shrug off the mistake and posed, but Dawn just recalled both of her pokemon.

The three judges sweat-dropped and nervously laughed.

"Um... Why don't we move on to May's performance?" Marian diverted attention to May.

The other coordinator on the battlefield looked up at the mention of her name. "Oh, right!" May pulled out two pokeballs and threw them, "Wartortle, Glaceon, take the stage!"

The two pokemon she called out appeared in a flash of light.

"Wartortle."

"Gla-ay."

The two pokemon waved to the spectators, then, May began the performance. "Wartortle, use Aqua Tail!"

Wartortle balanced itself in a handstand and it's tail began glowing light blue. It spun around slowly, and streams of water appeared, spiraling in a wide circle.

"Glaceon, use Ice Shard!"

Glaceon's Ice Shard attack was fired at Wartortle's tail and the shards of ice were quickly swept up into the streams of water. Wartortle's Aqua Tail began spinning faster and faster, and the shards of ice were broken up into icy dust, which filled the spaces of air in between one stream of water and the next.

"Wait for it..." May murmured. "Now!"

Wartortle abruptly stopped it's spinning Aqua Tail and the water streams dissolved into droplets hanging in the air.

"Ice Beam, go!"

Both Glaceon and Wartortle fired their Ice Beams into the air, the two attacks crossing for a moment before spinning around again. The two pokemon stopped their attacks after a few seconds, the water droplets in the air frozen into an icy mist, sparkling and glimmering around Wartortle and Glaceon.

The crowd cheered and applauded, and the judges smiled.

"And after totaling up the judges scores, the winner is..." Marian paused, "May! It looks like she's going on to the second round, folks!"

* * *

In the stands...

Dawn slumped down in her chair. She was surrounded by her friends in the stands and had just finished watching Zoey's match, but she wasn't as happy as she should have been.

Kenny sat down next to her and said, "Hey Dawn, wasn't Zoey's match great? I've never even heard of a triple battle before now, and Zoey won it! Dawn? You okay?"

Dawn turned her head and looked at Kenny, "I lost... and because I forgot all about Flame Wheel."

"Cheer up, Dawn!" Kenny smiled, patting his friend on the back, "It's like you told me, what's happened happened and there's nothing you can do to change that. It's what you do after that matters!"

Dawn sat up straight again and grinned, "You're right, I should follow my own advice." She stood up and smoothed out her dress, "Let's go congratulate Zoey!"

"I guess we're even now, eh, DeeDee?" Kenny remarked.

"Don't call me that!"

* * *

Stalia weaved her way through the stands until she found where Ash was sitting with Pikachu. "Hi Ash," she said, "That was a great battle with Nando. Sceptile must've been tired after dodging and attacking so much." she idly twirled a lock of hair on her finger.

"Sceptile's fine now." Ash replied, "And winning against Nando means that I'm going on to the next round! I wonder who I'll be facing next, there's a lot of powerful trainers here."

Stalia opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Marian. "Now that we have our winners from this block, we can show the match-ups for tomorrow's battles! And here they are!"

On the large screen, sixteen blank match-ups were seen for a moment before the blank, silver rectangles flipped over and showed Block C's participants. A few matches stood out in particular.

**Block C:** Paul vs. Clair, Gary vs. Harley, Gardenia vs. Angie, Norman vs. Chili+Cress

* * *

Paul smirked when he saw who he would be facing, and then began walking back to the pokemon center to pick out a team of pokemon.

* * *

Gary and Harley, who were standing side by side, looked at each other. Gary politely said, "Well, I'm looking forward to battling you, Harley."

Harley smiled and mockingly bowed, "Oh please, gumdrop, it would be my honor." he kissed Gary's hand and then walked away, swaying his hips and waving goodbye femininely. "Toodle-loo!"

Gary shuddered and then muttered, "Ugh, I need some disinfectant."

* * *

"Well, what d'ya know." Ash looked at the screen, "Angie's here."

"Who's Angie?" Stalia asked.

"A girl we met at the Pokemon Summer Academy in Sinnoh." Ash explained, "She helps her parents take care of pokemon. It's kind of a surprise to see her here at the tournament."

Stalia nodded and then said, "Okay. Hmmm... I wonder how she'll do against Gardenia."

* * *

"Dad's going up against Chili and Cress!" Max exclaimed.

May, who was sitting in the seat behind him leaned forward and said, "Whoever they are."

"What?!" Max face-faulted and then quickly recovered, "How could you not know who Chili and Cress are?!"

May huffed and irritably replied, "Well not everyone's as much of a pokemon and battling geek as you are."

"I think I'll take that as a compliment." Max crossed his arms, "But you really should know who they are. They're Cilan's brothers! The three of them are the triplet Gym Leaders of Striaton City!"

May scratched the back of her head in mild embarassment. "Oh, uh, whoops."

Cilan came over to the pair of siblings and smiled. "Now, now, Max. There's no reason to embarrass your sister just because she didn't know that. You can't expect someone to know a random fact from a completely different region! Your dad is Norman, the Petalburg City Gym Leader, correct?"

Max grinned and replied, "Yup, that's him!"

"Well, good luck to him." Cilan noticed Iris waving to him and began walking towards her. He waved and called back, "My brothers aren't going to be pushovers, you know!"

May and Max waved good bye before sitting back down in their seats while waiting for their parents to come by.

"See? Cilan knows who Dad is, so you should know who he and his brothers are." the younger sibling teased.

"Max! I don't know everything like you do!" May angrily retorted.

"Oh," Max smiled, "So you admit I know more than you."

"What? No!"

* * *

**AN:** That's it on the battling for now, looks like Dawn goofed a bit. Things are going to be a little slower from now on, sorry, but I need to put in some plot development, not just tournament battles. Please review!

Mewtwo: This chapter is dumber than that annoying trio.

Rio: Hey! Don't be so mean!

Mewtwo: Jessie, James, and Meowth are idiots.

Rio: I meant about my chapter. Everyone knows Team Rocket is stupid. But they're persistent.

Mewtwo: That they are. They are very stupid and persistent to stalk one trainer and a Pikachu across five regions, the Orange Islands, and the Kanto Battle Frontier.

Team Rocket: We heard that!

Rio: What are you three doing here?!

Team Rocket: We want more screen time!

Rio: Security!

(The three Regis show up. Registeel grabs Team Rocket and leaves.)

Mewtwo: They're stubborn. But they have comedic value, give them what they want.

Rio: But it's hard to write Team Rocket! They always rhyme with each other and talk at the same time, it's kind of creepy. And it's hard to come up with rhymes they might say.

Mewtwo: Just put them in disguise.

Rio: Fine. But only if you say it.

Mewtwo: (sighs and rolls eyes) Please review.

Mew: Why didn't I get to say anything?

Rio: You just did.

Mew: Oh. Yay! Please mention what you think of May and Dawn's performances!


	16. Ch 16 - A Brief Meeting and New Problems

**Chapter 16 - A Brief Meeting and New Problems**

The next morning, Stalia left the Pokemon Center before anyone else was awake. The path from the Pokemon Center to the stadium was nearly straight, but wound around Cameran Palace at one point. She quickly ran to the stadium and walked inside, taking the elevator up to the observation ring. Zorua, who had followed her all the way there, hopped into her arms as she stepped out of the elevator.

Stalia looked around and began making her way to the same small room she had watched the tournament from the day before. The automatic doors opened as she approached, and she walked inside.

"Mewtwo?" she called.

Zorua hopped out of her arms and turned back into Mew.

_"I'm right here."_ Mewtwo telepathically replied.

Stalia jumped and looked at the bench, where Mewtwo was sitting. _He wasn't there before..._

"I wish you wouldn't scare me like that!" She exclaimed.

Mewtwo shrugged. "It's not my fault if you're not prepared, Latias."

Stalia sighed and then dissolved the illusion around her, revealing herself to be Latias. She floated over to the bench, hovering just above it. Mew joined the two of them, chasing her tail around above their heads. She stopped after getting bored of it and began floating upside down in front of her makeshift family's faces.

'So...' the playful Mew began, 'How's everything with the tournament been going?'

_"Everything's fine with the spectators."_ Mewtwo responded, _"No one suspects anything strange about the tournament or us. What about the shopkeepers, Latias?"_

Latias watched Mew, her head moving back and forth as she became mesmerized by the child-like psychic's antics. Mew had become rigid, her tail seemingly stuck to a point in the air, the rest of her acting like a swinging pendulum below._ How is she doing that?_ Latias wondered.

_"Latias!"_ Mewtwo snapped the Eon Pokemon out of her trance.

'Oh!' Latias looked around. 'What was the question?'

Mew resumed a normal position floating in the air and giggled.

_"The shopkeepers, Latias, the shopkeepers."_ Mewtwo reminded her.

'Oh, right.' Latias began her short report. 'I never_ rudely_ checked what they were thinking like you did the spectators, but the shopkeepers all seem glad that the tournament is giving them a chance for business. They don't seem to think there's anything strange about us or the tournament. They're selling some really weird things though, those statues were creepy and I have no idea who would buy an eight-foot totem pole.'

_"What about the trainers, Mew?"_ Mewtwo looked around the room, searching for the cat-like pokemon. _"Mew? Where are you? Mew?!"_

Mew teleported back into the room, eating a chocolate muffin.

_"Mew!"_ Mewtwo rebuked, _"Don't just leave like that!"_

Mew twirled in mid-air and asked, 'Why? Were you worried about me, bro?'

_"Uh, no, of course not."_ Mewtwo hastily replied, _"Just tell us if any of the trainers are getting onto us."_

Mew giggled and replied, 'Of course not, silly. They're too busy sulking over their losses or cheering on other trainers. All of them are too absorbed in this tournament. And the Elites are just messing around and watching the battles, they act really goofy for people who are supposed to be the best.'

Latias remarked, 'Well, no one's perfect. Not even the Elite Four and Champions. I suppose they try and stay composed in public, but they really have to make mistakes and just relax sometimes.'

Mewtwo sighed, _"I don't know why I agreed to help in the first place. But at least everything's going smoothly."_

Mew drifted upside-down in front of Mewtwo's face. She tilted her head, thinking about his words. 'Aw, lighten up, big bro!' She looked at what was left of the muffin in her paws. 'Here, have a muffin!' The smaller legendary then proceeded to stuff a half-eaten muffin in Mewtwo's mouth.

Mewtwo fell over the bench, flat on his back on the ground. He stood up and spit the leftover muffin out._ "What was that for?!"_

The psychic-type in question answered, 'You looked grumpy. But then again, you always look grumpy.'

_"Do not!"_

'Do too!'

_"Do not!"_

'Do too!'

_"Do-"_

Latias interrupted the arguing siblings. 'Uh, guys?' She pointed at the automatic doors, where a stunned janitor stood watching the trio.

'Oh.' Mew said. 'I got it!'

She teleported to behind the janitor and lifted up a two-foot-long piece of lead pipe. Latias called out, 'Wait! Mew! Don't-' Mew swung, knocking the janitor out cold. 'Swing.'

Mewtwo sighed. _"I'll wipe his memory and teleport him to the janitor's closet."_

Latias resumed her Stalia disguise and said to Mew, "I suppose we should get back to the Pokemon Center."

Mew nodded and transformed into Zorua once again. The two stepped into the elevator and rode it back down to ground level. They stepped out and began walking to the Pokemon Center.

When they could see their destination directly in front of them, Stalia spoke to Zorua, "We can just say we went for a walk." She took another step closer to the door and then-

**BOOM!**

A cloud of black smoke and dust rose up from behind the building.

"Ah!" Stalia gasped and ran to the back of the Pokemon Center to see what was going on.

Her friends were all coughing and choking, trying to wave away the dust. When it cleared, no one besides them were visible in the area.

"Stalia!" Brock called out, "It's good to see you're alright."

"What happened here?!" She asked.

Misty walked over to her and said, "We don't know. We were going to get some training in, but all of a sudden there was an explosion and a lot of smoke in the air."

"I saw the explosion part and ran here to see what happened." Stalia replied, "But is everyone okay?"

Choruses of "Yeah.", "I'm good.", and "We're okay." were heard.

Cilan sighed, "At least it doesn't seem like anyone was hurt. But we're all pretty shaken up, what was that explosion?"

Suddenly, Jessie and James ran to the group and stopped, gasping for breath. They got down on their knees and started crying and begging. "Please help us, twerps!"

"We know we don't deserve any help," James said, sniffling.

"But there's no one else we could go to!" Jessie finished.

"Meowth is missing!" The duo exclaimed.

"Why should we help you?" May pointed out, "You're pokemon thieves!"

"And not very successful ones at that." Max added.

"I'm not really sure if we should help them." Brock said.

"At least hear us out!" Jessie and James begged.

"Alright, fine." Iris said, "We'll listen to what happened, but there's no guarantee that we'll help. And were you guys the ones who set off that explosion?"

"Thank you." The duo gratefully shook Iris' hand. "And no that wasn't us."

They stood up and then sat down on a nearby bench to begin their tale.

James started, "Yesterday, about an hour after the tournament ended for the day...

* * *

Flashback...

Jessie, James, and Meowth were walking back to the makeshift camp they had on the outskirts of town.

"Hey, Jessie." James said, "Do you think we should buy some souvenirs?"

"We barely have enough money to feed ourselves, James." Jessie replied, holding her empty stomach. "And we spend half of that on mechas to steal Pikachu."

"And den another quarter is spent on our disguises." Meowth said in his accented voice.

"And then all of it fails to steal a single little Pikachu." James finished.

All three of them sighed.

**BOOM!**

Black smoke covered the area, and there was some sort of blue laser that passed through the cloud of smoke and dust. Some kind of flat thing flew through the cloud, knocking Jessie and James off their feet. After the dust cleared, the two of them stood up and coughed.

"Hey." James said, "Where's Meowth?!"

* * *

"And that's what happened." James finished.

"Eeeeek!" Dawn shrieked.

Everyone looked at her.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked.

Dawn panicked moving around back and forth, searching the area. "Where? Where?! Where?!"

After a few moments of energetic searching she walked back to the group and collapsed.

"It's okay, Dawn." Iris put a hand on her friend's shoulder, "It'll be okay."

Dawn exclaimed, "No! It's not okay! Piplup's gone! Someone-or something-took Piplup in the smoke!"

The whole group gasped and glanced around the area. No sign of Piplup.

Then Iris shrieked, "Axew's disappeared too!"

The two of them turned on Jessie and James, "What did you do with them?!"

"Guys, calm down!" Brock and Cilan held them back.

Brock said, "I don't think Team Rocket took them. Meowth is missing too, remember?"

"Listen to the tall twerp!" Jessie and James backed away from Dawn and Iris.

It took a minute, but Iris and Dawn calmed down and stopped trying to throttle Team Rocket.

"Glad that's over with." Jessie sighed.

The entire group was silent for a few seconds before Ash interrupted. "If Team Rocket didn't do anything, then where are the missing pokemon?"

That was a very good question.

* * *

**AN:** I know I said things would slow down, but I really wanted to add some other plot line in this story besides just the tournament.

Mewtwo: At least now there's something besides the tournament.

Rio: Yup! But this new plot line isn't going to be a quick solve.

Mew: Muffin?

Mewtwo: (Glares at Mew) No.

Rio: Um... No, but thanks.

Mewtwo: This story is still badly written.

Rio: Hey!

Mewtwo: Not very descriptive at all.

Rio: You know I'm no good at descriptive writing.

Mewtwo: At least we've stopped trying to fix the fourth wall. That was annoying.

Rio: We'll just build a new one at the end of this fanfiction. It'll be easier this way.

Mewtwo: But now there's a giant gaping hole in this room.

Rio: Yeah, but now we can view things happening in other dimensions! (The Krusty Krab appears in the spot the fourth wall used to be, like a TV screen)

Mewtwo: That's not supposed to happen. The fourth wall is supposed to keep us from falling out into an endless black void...

Rio: It is?

Mewtwo: Yeah.

Rio: Oh. Should we be worried?

Mewtwo: Yeah.

Mew: I'll give you a digital muffin if you review!


	17. Ch 17 - Piplup, Axew, where are you!

**Chapter 17 - Piplup, Axew, Where Are You?!**

Nurse Joy ran out of the Pokemon Center, she approached the group and exclaimed, "What happened here?!"

The group shifted around as Dawn and Iris moved forward.

"Nurse Joy! It's horrible!" Dawn shouted.

"Piplup and Axew are missing!" Iris finished. "They were right here before the explosion!"

"What?!" Nurse Joy gasped, "That's terrible! I'll call Officer Jenny!" She hurried back inside the Pokemon Center to make the call to the police station.

Team Rocket huddled behind the wooden bench they'd been sitting on before Nurse Joy had come out. Jessie and James were deep in discussion on what to do. Both of them were rather overemotional.

"We need help finding Meowth!" James whispered.

Jessie slapped him and hissed back, "We're Team Rocket! I know we need help, but we can't get that help from the police! We're Team Rocket! The twerps can help us! We're Team Rocket! W-we're Team Rocket..." Jessie sniffled.

"I miss Meowth too, if the police can find Meowth we can just escape from jail if they arrest us..." James sniffled too.

"But we're T-team Rocket!" Jessie wiped her eyes. "They'd never help us!"

James looked down at the ground and then softly spoke. "We're no team without Meowth."

Jessie's expression hardened, she stood up and said, "You're right. Let's go wait for Officer Jenny with the twerps." The three-no, two of them sat on the bench again, hoping that they could get Meowth back.

* * *

Officer Jenny stood with a notepad and pencil. She had just arrived and was about to take notes on witness and victim accounts of what happened. She asked, "So what was it that happened?"

As Misty and Max held Brock back while Cilan stared, Ash spoke up. "There was an explosion, and a lot of smoke."

Pikachu nodded, "Pikachu pika pikachu pi."

"There were these two beams of light that cut through it." Barry offered, shrugging a little, not really having any clue as to what Pikachu had said.

"Uh-huh." Officer Jenny jotted down a few notes before saying, "Go on."

"Something flat was moving through the smoke." Dawn said.

"And when it cleared..." Iris quietly continued, "Piplup and Axew were gone."

Team Rocket yelled, "The same thing happened to us yesterday!"

Officer Jenny didn't look up from her notes. She simply nodded and said, "Continue."

"Meowth disappeared after the smoke was gone!" Jessie shouted.

"But Pikachu and Stalia's Zorua are still here." May offered.

Officer Jenny nodded again and finished writing something down. She then tucked the notepad and pencil back into a shoulder bag. "You know, this has been happening ever since the tournament started."

"What?!" Stalia exclaimed.

Everyone looked at her. "Oh, it's just surprising, that's all." she nervously explained.

Officer Jenny continued speaking. "We're hoping to take in the two people who run the Legends Tournament in for questioning. Lita and Mathew. If you see them, be careful. There's nothing proven, but it's suspicious that these pokemon all go missing during their tournament. It may be a cover up. Please tell us if you know where they are, they're rather hard to find, which makes it even more suspicious." She gathered her things and walked back inside the Pokemon Center.

After Officer Jenny was out of sight, everyone turned to look at Stalia. They all knew that Lita was her aunt.

"What?" Stalia asked.

"It's simple, honey." Harley began explaining. "Officer Jenny said that your aunt is suspected of pokemon stealing. We want to know: Are you in on it?"

Stalia picked up Zorua and nervously looked at the suspicious gazes around her. "Of course I'm not! And Aunt Lita is innocent! So is Matthew! This tournament has nothing to do with the missing pokemon!"

"We believe you, Stalia." Cilan stated. "We're all just wondering, what now?"

Dawn raised her voice. "We go to the tournament!"

"Are you serious?!" Paul exclaimed.

"Yes, we are." Iris confidently said, "Piplup and Axew are missing, but the police have been looking for missing pokemon since the tournament started. They'll find them. I'm sure that the tournament happening is just coincidence."

Dawn continued, "Watching some battles will help to take our minds off of things. Besides, it's an oven out here."

Everyone thought about it for a moment and then nodded their agreement. "What are we waiting for?" Gary announced. "Some of us have matches today!"

The group began walking to the Cameran Stadium. Ash and Brock noticed that Cilan hadn't moved from the Pokemon Center's battlefields.

"Hey, Cilan!" Ash called out. "Aren't you coming?"

"Yeah, come on!" Brock yelled back, "The battles start in half an hour!"

Cilan waved the two of them off. "You guys go on ahead. It's investigating time!" He pulled on a detective outfit and magnifying glass out of nowhere and began walking around the battlefields examining the ground.

Ash and Brock sweat-dropped. "Does he do this kind of thing often?" Brock asked.

"You have no idea." Ash replied.

"Pikachu." Pikachu agreed.

* * *

It wasn't until the first match of the day ended that Cilan stopped pacing.

"Not a single clue." he sighed, sitting on the bench and gazing up at the clear blue sky. "Wow, it's hot today, everything looks like it's shimmering, even the sky. I should head to the stadium with everyone else, it'll be cooler there."

He began walking to Cameran stadium at a sedate pace. He was thinking, _I'll have to ask the others for the result of the first match, I hope I didn't miss too much of the second._

* * *

In the stadium, Dawn sat in the stands with her friends, watching the second battle. I miss having Piplup in my lap. She sighed and thought of Iris next to her, who was probably missing Axew just as much. Dawn whispered, "Piplup, Axew, where are you?"

* * *

**AN: **Rio here! How'd you like this chapter? I know it's short and not all that detailed, but it's a tournament filler and plotline suspense-builder. Battles next chapter, but most likely they'll just be the end of each battle, not the whole thing.

Rio: Any comments?

Mewtwo: ...

Rio: ...

Mewtwo: ...

Rio: Why does the silence keep echoing?!

Mewtwo: How should I know?

Rio: Hey! You talked!

Mewtwo: Um... Yes, I did. By the way, this chapter is even more poorly written than the last one.

Rio: I know, I know. But it's just filler.

Mewtwo: Put me in the next chapter.

Mew: And me! But not as Zorua, I want speaking lines!

Rio: Alright, alright. You'll be in the next chapter.

Mewtwo: Are we all ignoring the fact that there's a bird-airplane-tree thing named Coco standing where the fourth wall should be?

Coco: Coco. (Yup.)

Mew: Please review!


	18. Ch 18 - The Mystery Trainer Revealed

**Chapter 18 - The Mystery Trainer Revealed**

A dust cloud rose up from the battlefield, completely obscuring the view of the two pokemon, along with their trainers. Nothing could be seen through the cloud, but it was slowly thinning out. Soon, the two pokemon became visible. An unconscious Dragonair and still standing Electivire were revealed.

"And what a dramatic finish!" Marian exclaimed. "It looks like Electivire has won the match, which means Paul of Veilstone City is moving on to the next round!"

Clair, the Gym Leader of Blackthorn City, recalled her unconscious pokemon. She softly spoke to it's pokeball, "You did well, my old friend."

Paul recalled his Electivire and smirked._ Another easy win. And another step closer to battling Brandon._ He heard footsteps coming closer and looked up, seeing Clair directly in front of him.

"Thank you for a good match." Clair held out her hand. "It's been a while since I lost that badly."

Paul hesitated for a moment, slightly unsure of what to do, before reaching out and shaking her hand. "You're welcome, although you've certainly improved."

Clair smiled and then began walking to the battlefield exit. _He's certainly changed,_ she thought.

* * *

In the observation ring...

Mewtwo sat on the bench in disguise, wondering where Latias and Mew were. He stood up and began pacing back and forth, occasionally glancing outside at the battle between Paul and Clair. _Where are they? I'd expect at least Mew to be here, she started this thing in the first place._

The automatic doors slid open, Lita and Zorua running in. Lita panted for a bit, slightly out of breath, before letting Zorua jump to the ground. Zorua quickly changed back into Mew.

Lita stepped closer and gripped Mewtwo's shoulder. "Quick, teleport us to that storage closet." she hissed.

_"What? Why?"_ Mewtwo asked in surprise.

'Lita' glanced backwards at the direction she'd come from and said, "Just do it."

Mewtwo decided to just go with her wishes and teleported the three of them, Mew included, to the storage closet he'd been held captive in.

_"What's this about?"_ he asked.

Lita opened the door of the storage room a crack, and poked her head out, checking the hallway for people. Seeing none, she closed the door again and began explaining. "The police are after us. Pokemon have been disappearing ever since the tournament began, they want to question us about it."

Mew floated over and offered more information. 'Piplup and Axew disappeared this morning.'

_"But we didn't take the pokemon."_ Mewtwo began thinking out loud._ "So who did?"_

Mew poked her head out from inside a crate and whispered, 'No one knows...' she slid her head back inside and giggled.

"Be serious, Mew." Lita said. "And get back in disguise. It's still better that we get caught as Matthew, Lita, and Zorua than Mewtwo, Latias, and Mew."

Mew rolled her eyes. "Fine." She transformed back into her Zorua disguise.

_"We'll have to be careful until the real culprit is found."_ Mewtwo stated.

'And because the police are looking for us instead,' Mew, disguised as Zorua smiled. 'We'll have to investigate!' she teleported away.

Mewtwo sighed._ "I guess it's a good thing you have a 'Stalia' disguise after all. Go back to those humans you made friends with, you'll be safer there."_

Latias let go of her illusion and cast a different one around her, for all appearances, she was now a ten-year-old girl named Stalia. "What about you?"

Mewtwo smirked before teleporting away, his parting words hanging in the air._ "As if they'd ever catch me."_

Stalia smiled and left the storage room, calling out for her partner in disguise. "Zorua? Where are you?"

* * *

On the battlefield...

Gary yelled, "Night Slash, Umbreon!"

"Cacturne, dodge!" Harley commanded.

Harley's Cacturne leapt over Gary's Umbreon, but the Eeveelution seemed to expect it's movements and the Night Slash attack struck it head on. Cacturne winced before hitting the ground shoulder first. It was unconscious.

The referee held out the red flag and announced. "Cacturne is unable to battle. The winner of this match is Umbreon!"

Gary smiled and recalled his Electivire, watching as Harley flailed about. "Oh no! My precious Caacturne! Are you alright?!" It wasn't until Cacturne sat up and rubbed it's shoulder that Harley finally recalled it.

"It looks like Gary Oak is moving on to the next round!" Marian's voice rang out through the cheering stadium.

* * *

Just after the last battle for the day...

Our favorite group of trainers sat in the front few rows in a section of the stadium, the lot of them just hanging around and talking about the tournament. They'd grudgingly let Team Rocket sit with them and watch the tournament, on the condition that they wouldn't bother anyone. Of course, they were there in disguise.

Iris sat next to Dawn, who was just staring at the floor blankly. The dragon master in training softly said. "Well, the battles really have taken everyone's mind off of Piplup and Axew."

Dawn looked back up at Iris' voice, turning to face her friend. She sighed. "Yeah. And I'm glad it did, this tournament seems like a once in a lifetime thing. I don't want to ruin it for all my friends because Piplup's missing. And I still think Team Rocket's behind it." She glared at the duo, who were in disguise a few seats to her right.

Iris looked up at the sky while replying. "I feel the same way about Axew. But I really don't think this is Team Rocket's doing. They didn't really mess with us all that often in Unova."

Dawn was about to respond, but then Stalia ran over to the group, Zorua in her arms. She waved from the stairs, saying, "Guys! Guys! The next match-ups are about to be announced!"

Everyone turned to look at the screen.

"And here are tomorrow's match-ups!" Marian announced through the speaker system.

On the big screen, sixteen blue icons were shuffled and then flipped over from left to right. Several match-ups really stood out to our group of trainers.

**Block D: Barry vs. Fantina, Bianca vs. Brandon**

Then, when the last icon flipped over, Paul, Barry, Ash, Brock, and Dawn stared at the picture.

**Tobias**

* * *

**AN:** Sorry about all the short chapters lately, but I can't seem to bring myself to write longer ones. At least now you all know who the mystery trainer is.

Rio: How come only one person bothered to guess who it was? It seemed pretty obvious too.

Mewtwo: You wrote this ridiculous story.

Rio: Yeah, I did. What do you think?

Mewtwo: Again, you need more description. And Dawn and Iris seemed slightly OOC.

Rio: Well I still need the tournament to go on, even with the missing pokemon!

Mewtwo: ... So... Where are the missing pokemon?

Rio: Not telling.

Mewtwo: Maybe the reviewers can guess.

Rio: Sure, but I'm not going to confirm or deny anything.

Mewtwo: ... Now there's a giant red crab thing standing where the fourth wall should be.

Rio: And it has a weird symbol on top of it, like a cross between an eye and a target.

Mewtwo: Let's ignore it.

Rio: Sure. That worked for Coco.

Mew: Please Review! Oh, and the digital muffin offer expired.


	19. Ch 19 - Stalia

**Chapter 19 - Stalia**

The group was having dinner at the Pokemon Center, four or five of them sitting at a table, which was kind of necessary with a group that large. Everyone was there except for Stalia. Somewhat surprisingly, Iris and Dawn were sitting with Team Rocket. Not very surprisingly, none of them felt like talking. They sat in complete silence, contrary to the loud and happy conversation happening around them.

Iris finished off the last of her soup and stood up. "I'm gonna go to bed early." She turned and began walking to her room.

Dawn stood up as well and murmured. "Me too." She followed Iris.

Jessie and James glanced in Iris and Dawn's direction before looking at each other. An unspoken message passed between them. 'We should leave now.' They hurriedly finished off what was left of their food and left the Pokemon Center unnoticed.

On the other side of the cafeteria were Ash, Brock, May, Max, and, weirdly enough, Harley. They sat together at a table, awkwardly looking back and forth from Harley to their food. It was May's rival who broke the strange silence at their table.

"Listen up, you four." He leaned over the table slightly and whispered. "Next to Dawnsie and Iris, you've spent the most time with Stalia, right?"

They nodded.

"Good." Harley continued. "I want to know, is there any chance _at all_ that she's in on this missing pokemon thing."

A chorus of whispered protests rose up.

"Of course not!" May hissed at Harley.

"No way!" Max firmly shook his head.

"Stalia would never do something like that." Brock seemed the most calm out of the four.

"She's our friend, we trust her." Ash said. "There's no way she took Piplup and Axew!"

Harley smirked. "Oh, how adorable!" He whispered with a grin. "You're so naive. Don't you realize she could be playing you? Gaining your trust before stealing away your pokemon?"

The rest of them looked slightly uncertain until Ash spoke up. "No way. We trust Stalia, there's no way she took the pokemon."

Harley sighed shook finger in a tsking motion. "How cute. You _trust_ her. I suppose it's just coincidence that Stalia spent the most time with Dawn and Iris. Now she's avoiding them like the plague and hanging out with you four. Maybe you'll rethink that trust when little Pikachu disappears."

Said Pikachu jumped onto the table, cheeks sparking. The rest of the group glared at Harley.

Harley backed up his chair a little at this. "Now, now. No need to get angry here." He got out of his chair and backed up a bit farther. "I'm just warning you. Toodle-loo!" He turned and left.

There was a brief moment of silence after he left.

May broke it with an unrelated question. "So...What's the story behind this Tobias guy?"

Max spluttered. "What?! How can you not know who he is?!"

May huffed. "I wasn't asking you, Max."

Max replied. "Still! You should know-Wait, who were you asking then?" He was used to always being the one who knew the answer.

May said. "Well, Ash and Brock seemed familiar with the guy."

* * *

Earlier that day...

**Tobias**

"It's Tobias..." Barry was unusually quiet.

"He's here..." Paul muttered.

Brock said. "And he's up against Candice."

Ash suddenly became energized. "I can't believe it! Tobias is here!"

Brock chuckled. "I bet you can't wait to battle him."

Dawn smiled. "Well, this tournament is going to be even better than I thought."

* * *

End flashback...

Max remembered. "Oh yeah!" He turned to Ash and Brock. "I totally forgot! The Sinnoh League! Remember?"

Brock smiled. "You bet. There were some really amazing battles."

Ash responded. "And I doubt any of us'll forget Tobias."

May threw her hands up in the air and exclaimed. "Does everyone know who this guy is except me?!"

Max excitedly raised his hand. "Oh! Oh! Can I explain? Please?" He asked Ash and Brock.

"Sure." the two of them grinned at Max's excitement.

"Okay..." Max ran through what he knew. "How to start?"

"How about his Darkrai?" Ash suggested.

"Good idea!" Max exclaimed. "You see, May. Tobias competed in the Sinnoh League the same time Ash did. And just like in Hoenn, you need eight Gym Badges to compete. He won each Gym batle using only his Darkrai. No other pokemon."

May was listening attentively.

"And when he won the Sinnoh League," Max continued. "He won each of his battles, except for one, using only his Darkrai."

"So he won the Sinnoh League? Using only his Darkrai? " May said. "Wow, that's amazing. Hang on, you said besides one battle, right? Which one?"

Max smirked. "I'll leave Ash to explain that one."

May turned to Ash and Brock and asked. "You guys were there, right? Did you see any of Tobias' battles?"

Max stifled his laughter.

"Did we see any of his battles? Ha!" Ash exclaimed. "I battled him in the semi-finals!"

"Really?" May asked, intrigued. "How did that turn out?"

"Well," Ash began. "He knocked out some of my pokemon pretty easily, but there was still some damage done to his Darkrai. Sceptile managed to knock it out. But then, Tobias brought out his Latios. It knocked out the rest of my team besides Pikachu, Pikachu was my last pokemon."

"Of course, you didn't beat Tobias." Brock interrupted. "Pikachu tied with Latios."

"Yeah, but now I get a rematch!" Ash exclaimed, bouncing out of his chair.

"Geez, Ash. Calm down." Max said. "First, you've got to beat anyone who you're up against_ before_ Tobias."

"Oh. Yeah." He sat back down.

Cilan then walked by the table, holding a tray full of food. "Mind if I sit with you guys?" he asked.

"Fine by me." May said.

Cilan sat down and started a conversation. "You know, Harley keeps bringing up Stalia. Do you guys-"

"No way." Ash interrupted him. "There's no way Stalia's part of whatever took the pokemon."

The others nodded their agreement.

Cilan spoke up. "I was just going to ask if you guys think she's been acting strange lately."

Brock was the one who responded first. "Actually... Yeah, I've noticed her just disappearing off to somewhere."

May said. "Sometimes we just can't find her anywhere."

Max replied. "There's something odd about her."

Ash spoke last. "She seems weirdly familiar too."

Brock shook his head no and said.. "Really? I don't recognize her from anywhere."

May and Max didn't either.

"Huh." Ash said to himself. "Guess it's just me."

* * *

**AN:** Here it is, chapter 19! And I'm sorry to say this, but I'm not sure when the next update will be. Unfortunately, my interest in this story just seems to be waning. I'm still hopeful that I can finish this one day. But still, please review!

P.S. There's a poll on my profile. Nothing to do with Pokemon, but I'd appreciate some more votes.

Mew: Boring.

Rio: Hey! I can't have it all action all the time.

Mewtwo: She's right.

Mew: It's still _boring_.

Rio: Meh.

Mewtwo: Meh.

Mew: Meh. It's a funny word.

Rio: So, Mewtwo. What do you think of this chapter?

Mewtwo: Much better writing at the beginning than the end. The end was terrible. Try harder next chapter.

Rio: Well, at least _I_ know what's going to happen next.

Mewtwo: What?

Rio: Not telling...

Mew: Please review!


End file.
